


History Has it's Eyes of You

by TheMadHatress13



Series: Life Doesn't Discriminate Between the Sinners and the Saints [3]
Category: MCU, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Everyone Gets A Hug, Everyone Needs A Hug, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Nightmares, Panic Attacks, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Ross is the Worst, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Wakanda, like seriously the WORST
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-16
Updated: 2018-06-04
Packaged: 2019-05-07 21:11:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 20,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14679587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMadHatress13/pseuds/TheMadHatress13
Summary: Thanos has been defeated, but there are still battles that need to be fought. Ross refuses to end the war on Wakanda as said country stubbornly shelters the Avengers and Guardians. Peter must face his own mind as he tries to cope with what happened in the golden light along with Bucky and T'Challa, and, Pepper faces Ross in her own media battle flanked by MJ, and May.Thanos has been defeated, but the war is just starting.





	1. Stay Alive

**Author's Note:**

> I'm back! Turns out being sick and feeling like you're about to throw up has the perks of getting to write a ton since you don't have to go into school! I'm planning to add to "Eye of the Hurricane" with some more fluffy pre-infinity war one shots, so it you want to see something, comment on THAT story, or let me know on tumblr. Anyway, here ya go!

Pepper had gone through a lot of emotion spirals while in a relationship with Tony Stark. This, though, had to be the most stressful. Him leaving for space for the second time in one month, and then barely sending any word except in mission reports, was torture.l Her and May had mostly stayed in the compound, not holding any press conferences, or answering any of Ross’s questions, which the secretary was not happy about.  
When Tony finally did come back along with everyone who had been in the golden light, things seemed like they were going to be alright. The two women had been prepared to jump onto Tony’s jet and go straight to Wakanda when suddenly Ross’s alert got out. There would be no travel from the United States to or from Wakanda. They were forced to be reunited with their loved ones via hologram.  
It was this that drove Pepper to hold the first press conference since Thanos, and it was dedicated entirely to speaking out against Ross, and the war that he was now waging on Wakanda over the Avengers, and his stupid accords. Pepper had not been sure how the public would receive her statements, but was surprised by how much enthusiasm they responded with. It looked like she wasn’t the only one against this war after all.  
May would speak with Peter on the hologram daily, and Ned and MJ were called in to say high as well. They had not yet been made aware about Mindy’s true identity as Palmarius, as the strange entity did not want her cover blown. She had made the decision to stay on Earth, and she didn’t want to find a new cover.  
Pepper would speak to Tony often, and the other Avengers. She had been introduced to the Guardian’s of the Galaxy as well, and very reluctantly agreed to speak with Loki. She had already begun writing up an alliance contract between the Guardians and the Avengers, as Tony was perfecting his intergalactic communication so there would be less lag. He was also getting Quill an ipod.  
The Guardians of the Galaxy would be staying on Earth to fight with the Avengers. As Gamora had put it, “The mess my father created is not yet fixed until the wars waged because of it are solved.” No one was complaining about this, as they could definitely use the help of the guardians. The more influential people they had on their side against Ross, the better. Pepper was yanked out of these thoughts by the voice of F.R.I.D.A.Y alerting her to the arrival of who had been identified as Scott Lang, and three others.  
“Let them in,” Pepper said in confusion Last she had heard, Scott Lang had been in Wakanda with the others. She turned when she heard the elevator door open, and sure enough, there stood Scott, his daughter, and who Pepper took to be the little girls mom and step-father.  
“Hey, Pepper,” Scott said, looking uncomfortable.  
“How are you here?” she asked. “I thought you were in Wakanda, and now with the travel ban...How did you get out?”  
“Shrinking suit,” Scott replied. “I headed back to Pym’s house, and he said to bring these guys here so Ross can’t get to them. You don’t mind, right? I had just figured he’d told you.”  
“He didn’t, but it’s fine. We’ve got the space. May Parker is here too, so you’ll probably run into her. F.R.I.D.A.Y will show you to your rooms, I need to talk to Scott for a moment,” Pepper said. The others nodded and followed the AI’s instructions on how to get to where they’d be staying, while Scott looked at Pepper expectantly. “You know I’m going to ask. What’s going on down there?”  
“Everyone’s stressing. T’Challa is buried in work that he needs to catch up on, and Okoye and M’Baku are just trying to fight this war without weapons, which will not hold for long. “  
“And the others? Are they staying?”  
“The Avengers and Guardians are. So is Palmarius and and Loki, but Captains Marvel is keeping out of the action, she doesn’t want to get on Ross’s radar or people to force to sign the accords. I think she’s going to stay low with Maria and Fury, help from behind the scenes,” Scott explained.  
“And what about the people that didn’t sign?” Pepper asked, knowing how touchy Tony was on the subject of Peter signing the accords. She had a feeling he himself was regretting the decision as well.  
“They are staying. Peter, Thor, the rouge Avengers, they’re still being pestered by Ross. We’re trying to keep the Guardians on a low profile, but he probably knows about them. He’ll probably want there signatures as well.”  
“And Dr. Strange?”  
“Has already received a notice from our dear government. They definitely want him on board.”  
“What about Palmarius?”  
“They don’t know about her yet. The crew has kept the defeat of Thanos pretty quite. Ross knows they had help, but doesn’t know who. He probably thinks it’s just some being that lived on Knowhere and didn’t return to Earth.”  
“If only he knew the truth,” Pepper said with a sigh. “Well, you go find your daughter, I’m sure you have some catching up to do. I’ll let you know if I hear anything,” Pepper said. Scott smiled thankfully at her, and headed up to the room F.R.I.D.A.Y directed him to. Pepper watched him go and then turned her attention back to the large window she was looking at, and to the street below, where a five mile march was being held to protest the war. If Ross wanted chaos, he had gotten it. 

 

Wanda sat alone in her room, watching as a stream of red light floated around her, twisting lazily through the air as she moved her fingers. She had been spending most of her time with Natasha, but given that the other woman was currently in a meeting with Okoye, she was left with nothing else to do but think about what could possibly be coming.  
The threat of war was now a reality. She had been naive to think that the defeat of Thanos would change Ross’s mind about how he wanted to solve his accords problem. She wished that Vision were there, but he had not been brought back with the others. He was gone.  
“Wanda, you in here?” Asked the voice of Steve Rogers. She flicked her hand and the door opened to reveal said soldier. “I’ll take that as a yes,” he said.  
“What do you need, Steve,” she asked tiredly.  
“I was told to give you this,” Steve replied, handing her a small box. “Stark gave it to me.” Wanda nodded and took the box, staring at it as Steve went back down to the main meeting room to rejoin the others. She carefully lifted the lid and sucked in a breath. There was only one thing sitting inside; a glowing golden stone that seemed to radiate power. The mind stone. Stark must have gotten it back rom Palmarius. She looked at the lid of the box o find a sticky note attached with a short message.  
‘Bring to Shuri. Fix Vision.’  
“Thank you, Stark,” she whispered before closing the lid of the box and racing down to Shuri’s lab where she would end up spending the week. 

 

Thanos was dead. Peter had not been permitted in the room to see the assassination, but he had been alerted the second Nebula landed the killing blow on the great titan. He was glad that Thanos was dead. Peter had never thought he could ever think that about a living being, but it was true. He had wished him dead this whole time, and now that wish had been granted. Did that make him a monster? He really didn’t care if it did. Thanos was dead, and that was all that mattered. Now, though, they would have to turn their attention to Secretary Ross, and the war they were currently fighting against there own country.  
Wakanda had shut down all trade they had been beginning with America, and the travel ban was not going to be lifted any time soon. The shields were being sent full power, and were being constantly worked on and updated by Wakanda’s best engineers.  
Peter spend a lot of time with Shuri in her lab, as neither of them were allowed to venture outside or join in anything war related by T’Challa and Tony. They would discuss vines, and Shuri would try to teach Peter how advanced Wakanda’s technology was. A lot of it went over Peter’s hea, but he did more web designs, from Shuri, and an update to the eyes of his mask to better suit his enhanced senses.  
He had finally been released from the prison like room the doctors had been keeping him in, and he now had a much more open room right by Tony and Bucky. He didn’t get to see either as much as he would have liked as they were constantly in war related meetings, but he didn’t mind as much. There were always people around, and that was a good thing. Palmarius would always be willing to hang out. He still referred to her as Mindy, and was very interested in the reasoning behind her secrecy when he had more than willingly revealed his secret identity to her. Her answers were always vague and unsatisfying, forcing Peter to finally just let it go.  
“Will you be staying on Earth? Or are you going to go with the Guardians and hang out in space?” Peter asked on day. Palmarius was still in her ‘infinity warrior’, as Peter had started calling it, form. This gave him the impression that she would not be returning to Queens once everything was settled with Ross.  
“Oh I’ll be staying,” she replied casually, which surprising Peter greatly. “If I leave, then who’s gonna play Eliza in Hamilton?” she asked, referring to the next school production. “Honestly, there is no way that I’m letting Helen Baker get that role!” she declared.  
“Do you think you’ll be an Avenger?” Peter asked.  
“Nah, don’t want everyone knowing about me. I was designed to hide out in the open and not draw attention to myself in my task as the stones eyes, ears, and fists. If Earth is ever in major danger though, let me know,” she said.  
“You know Ross is going to find you out if you fight for us now,” Peter warned. “Why don’t you leave like Captain Marvel did?”  
“Because, I have no place in S.H.I.E.L.D, and I do not fear Ross. I could smit him with one blow if I wanted to. Even if he sees me, he will only think I am one of the Guardians,” she replied simply. Now, I’ve gotta go help Shuri in her lab. She’s trying to rebuild Vision, and will probably need some help with the mind stone.”  
“You gave her the mind stone?” Peter asked, just noticing that one of the glimmering stones from Palmarius’s crown was missing.  
“Yes, the mind stone was far more useful powering Vision then it was sitting around in some collectors hoard. It was watching you guys, always. That’s how I knew who you were when I arrived on Earth. It’s also how the soul stone knew to make it’s test love. Through watching the interactions of the Avengers through Vision’s eyes, we learned that no one would throw away the thing they loved most; it’s how we tricked Thanos.”  
“You did all that by watching us?” Peter asked.  
“Yup, all from you guys.”  
“What about the other stones?”  
“I’m not sure yet. I’m sure that Wakanda will probably want one to study, so I’ll leave one with them. Dr. Strange will be wanting his time stone back soon, so I will give that to him. I assume that Stark is going to want one, I will have to think about whether or not I heed that request. We all know what happened when he got his hands on Loki’s scepter,” she mused. “I may give another to the sanctum, it really depends on how this all plays out.”  
“Then you’ll be practically out of infinity stones, aren't they what power you?” Peter asked.  
“Yes, but there are other stones. Not as powerful as the main six, more like sub stones. They are useful though, and many desire them as well. Thanos probably would have gone after them sooner or later had his ate not been in Nebula’s hands,” Palmarius explained.  
“Where are they now?” Peter asked.  
“All over the place, no one can say for sure. I have found two so far, the death stone, and the ego stone. They can give me just as much power as the other ones, and I serve them all the same,” she said. With that she was gone, and Peter was left to think about everything she had said.  
He was not alone for long, though, before Tony’s meeting got out and the man himself came over, a grim expression on his face.  
“Hey Mr. Stark, what’s going on?” Peter asked.  
“Ross is still pushing for your signature on his stupid contract,” Tony growled, sitting down beside him.  
“Well if it will fix this, I’ll just sign the-”  
“No, no, and no. You will not be signing those papers. By signing those, you give up all your rights, and your identity. It won’t do anything to stop him either, he will attack until he gets what he wants. You signature will do nothing to change that,” Tony growled. Peter nodded and looked down.  
“I heard you gave Wanda the soul stone, Palmarius was just here,” Peter said, changing the subject.”  
“Yeah, I thought it was fair, Wanda didn’t get back anyone she had lost, so I talked to you friend about it,” Tony replied.  
“They’re in Shuri’s lab now trying to remake his body. They’re having some problems though, you wouldn’t happen to have the machine that did it the first time, would you?”  
“No, it’s back at the compound. There’s no way Ross would let me have it sent. If he found out Vision was gone and we were trying to bring him back he’d only try and use it to prove his case,” Tony said with a sigh.  
“Oh, okay,” Peter said. “How’s Pepper?”  
“Stressed. She confirmed that Scott and his family are at the compound, and May is still there as well. They’re all fine. Ross has been pressuring them, but he can’t do anything. Not really.”  
“What does he think about May being there? Does he think that I’m-”  
“No, as far as he knows, May is one of Pepper’s friends who was staying with her after I left for space. The disappearance of you and Mindy is being written off as a family getaway to try and deal with the whole thing. It’s not too difficult to hide, half the city isn’t going into work or school. Everyone’s still trying to process,” Tony assured him.  
“Good, I don’t want her to be caught in the middle of this. She doesn’t deserve that. She doesn’t deserve any of this shit,” Peter said bitterly.  
Ah, if only Cap could hear the kid now, Tony thought to himself. Steve would flip out.


	2. Echo, Echo, is the Only Voice Coming Back, Shadow, Shadow, is the Only Friend That I Have

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They try to deal with the past, and present. Also, references to HISHE.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back with chapter two! Sorry for accidentally posting this story three times, my computer kept saying it had failed to post, but apparently it hadn't.

T’Challa had been in meetings constantly since his return. He had to go through everything he’d missed while being ‘dead’, and deal with the war against America while trying to recover on his own from hsi time in the golden light. Okoye and M’Baku were helping by taking over everything that didn’t require his direct attention, and Ramonda and Shuri were keeping him optimistic, but he still struggled on his own.

“My King, Sargeant Barnes is outside,” one of the guards reported, gesturing to the door to the council room. T’Challa shook himself out of his thoughts and gestured for the guard to let him in. It had been a while since he’d last had a conversation with someone that wasn’t about the problems at hand, so he was looking forward to this conversation.

“Hello Bucky,” T’Challa greeted as Bucky entered the room. “How can I help you today.”

“I’m honestly not sure. I just-what’s going on? I mean, I know Thanos is dead and all, but it doesn’t feel like anything's finalized,” he said, metal fingers clenching and unclenching. T’Challa hadn’t noticed how worn out the other man was until he got a closer look at him. It was clear he wasn’t sleeping, and he had been in meetings all day as well. T’Challa knew the feeling. 

“It is the golden light,” he replied, making Bucky stop. You and I were both trapped in it alone, with no hope of escape and no one else for days before we got through to Peter. We were sent there in the middle of a battle, with no warning or explanation for how we got there. It is going to leave scars,” T’Challa said. “Yes, Thanos is dead, but this will never be finalized. WE will continue to feel the repercussions, the worst of which will come around now.”

“Like Hydra,” Bucky said with a resigned sigh, sitting down miserably.

“Yes, like Hydra.”

“So this is going on with you too, huh?”

“Yes, I remember my time there well,” T’Challa replied stiffly, a flash of harsh gold flashing behind his eyelids. He shook his head to dispel the image, but he knew it would return come night. “As does Peter, and everyone else who was trapped. They were not alone, though, so they will not understand the same struggle you face. Solitude is a human's worst punishment.” Bucky nodded, looking down. “Have you spoken to Captain Rogers about this?” T’Challa asked.

“No, I don’t wanna bother him,” Bucky admit.

“You will not bother him, he will want to know. If the rumors I’m hearing are correct, your problems are now his, and vice versa,” T’Challa said, lips quirking upward when he saw Bucky duck his head and blush.

“Things get around quickly here?”

“Quicker than twitter. He will want to here, he struggled as well when you were gone. I’m sure that it will help the both of you.” They sat in silence for a bit, both lost in thought about the past until Bucky finally spoke again.

“How’s the kid holding up? Have you gotten to see him?”

“Yes, I spoke with him and Stark earlier,” T’Challa replied. “He still does not sleep peacefully, but that is the same for us. Stark will not let him fight. I don’t think that will hold.”

“No, it probably won’t. You don’t think we’ll be fighting on an open field, do you?”

“I hope not. Wakanda has yet to launch a purposely deadly missile other then the small one a few weeks ago, and that was only a warning shot. I do not wish to fight America. The way things are going now, though, I believe it is a possibility. It that happens, I expect nothing of you or the Avengers. As long as you are here, you will have no obligation to kill those from your own ranks.”

“Thank you,” Bucky said, some of the tension leaving his shoulders.

 

Dr. Strange was exhausted. He had been in and out of various offices all day to explain things about infinity stones to different people. He and Palmarius were the two people who knew the most about the subject, and Palmarius was not available, so it was up to him.

When he finally did get back to his room, all he wanted to do was sit back and have a drink. Sadly this was not an option, as Stark had reclaimed the bottle Strange had taken from his bar, and he couldn’t get another one without Pepper noticing it’s absence and reporting back to Tony about it. He sighed and rubbed his hands down his face.

“Well someone’s in a mood.”

“Hello, Stark,” the doctor groaned, sitting up to see Tony standing in the doorway. “How may I be of assistance, and if you say ‘tell me about infinity stones’, I will send you to to the arctic,” he said. 

“A bad mood, I take it,” Tony said, inviting himself in.

“I ask again, what do you want?”

“Can’t I just check in on my friend? Is that suddenly a bad thing?”   
“If you want to be this annoying, then yes. Yes it is,” he said, glaring at Tony. The Cloak of Levitation, seeming to sense Strange’s mood, flicked Tony in the ear and darting out of reach before the other man could swat it away.

“Could you tell your demon cloak to cut it out?” Tony said crossly, glaring at the cloak as it drifted away.

“I could, but you deserve it,” Strange said with a slight smile. “So, what’s up with you? Usually you only come talk to me when somethings wrong.”

“That is not true, I talk to you all the time!” Tony argued.

“Yeah, but you only seek me out when you’re in, how did you phrase it, ‘a mood’,” Strange replied easily. Tony sighed, and his shoulders slumped.

“Ross,” he stated.

“Ross is currently the center of many of our problems, you’ll have to be more specific,” the doctor responded.

“The accords,” Tony said. “He wants signatures. Especially Peter’s. And yours.”   
“I see,” Strange said, not giving anything away. He had been worried about this. He had heard about the accords when they had come out a few years previously. He hadn;t worried to much as the government didn’t know the sanctum existed. Well, Nick Fury had, but he wasn’t a problem. As things had become more intense, he got a little nervous. When he had openly used magic in the streets of New York and been carried off by aliens, well it was then he knew he’d be in trouble if her lived. “Does he know my real name? Or does he just know you call me ‘wizard’.”

“He doesn’t know your name, he didn’t get any audio.”

“Wait, what?”

“He has security footage from New York. He knows that you have a flying cloak, are magic, and have an infinity stone. He doesn’t like that,” Tony said. Shit.

“Well then, I guess I’m a hostage like you,” he finally said. They sat in silence for a bit.

“Hey doc, do you remember dying?” Tony asked finally.

“What?” he asked, taken aback.

“You said you have all of alternate you’s memories. Alternate you died, just like Peter and the others. Do you remember?” Strange looked at him for a few minutes before answering.

“Yes,” he whispered. “Yes I do. I knew that I would be back, I knew my plan would work, but I was still afraid,” he confessed. “Why are you asking?”

“I don’t know how to help Peter,” Tony confessed. “I mean, the panic attacks, I can help him. Nightmares, I’m the guy. Dieing? I’m stuck. Near death, that’s one thing. Actually disintegrating and getting sucked into the limbo? That is very different.” Strange nodded.

“What about Bucky and T’Challa? They were there with him.”

“Bucky is in war councils, and T’Challa is busy being the king. They’ve dropped by, but not a lot. Besides, I trust you a lot more than I trust them.” Strange was surprised by the compliment. He had not known Stark very long, but he supposed that the man had not reason not to trust him. Well, besides experience.

“I guess I could talk to him, but I don’t know how much help I’ll be, I literally told both of you I’d let you die to save the stone when we were on that ship.”

“And then you didn’t, you saved me,” Tony appealed.

“No, I saw that that was the only option.”

“Yeah, well, here I am,” Tony replied. “Oh, and I brought you this, you look like you need it,” Tony said, holding out the bottle Strange had just been thinking about out in front of him. “There had better still be some left in the morning. And don’t act too hungover in your next meeting, you’ll make me look bad,” Tony said on his way out.

“Don’t you want any? “Strange called, opening the bottle.

“Oh believe me I do,” Tony started, “but I’ve got another meeting. It’s not to long though, so I’ll swing by in about thirty,” he called over his shoulder. The doctor nodded and poured himself a glass, and downed it in one go.

“If he thinks that this bottle is still gonna be here tomorrow, he is very much mistaken,” he said to himself.

 

Nebula and Gamora sat in companionable silence, both watching as engineers inspected the shields for any design flaws. Nebula had said very little since she had dealt Thanos a killing blow. It had been far from pretty. She had used a relatively small blade, and carved out his eye, sliced into his arms, and finally slit his throat and let him bleed into nothingness. It was probably a good thing Tony had not let Peter watch, and T’Challa had kept Shuri far from the arena where it had happened.

Nebula had not been trying to spend more time with the other guardians as Gamora had asked her to, but it was quite awkward. They would lapse into random silences, and had very little to talk about, as the few times they’d met, it had not been under preferable terms.

She had made one friend though, and that was Loki. Neither of them really fit it, and had both been quite villianouse in their pasts, making it hard to really hang out with any of the others besides their siblings, who were desperate to see them become a member of the group.

“So, what do you plan on doing after the war?” Nebula finally asked. Gamora seemed to think about it for a moment before replying.

“I don’t really know. I mean, usually we just fly around and look for jobs. We’re having a contract written up with the Avengers, though. If they should ever need us, we’ll come back and vice versa.”

“Gamora, you know that your crew doesn’t want me joining. I am not welcome.”

“They just need time. Quill is fine with you-”

“That’s only because I hate Thanos, as does he. They know I fought with them, and that’s the only reason I’m not dead. Had I not been on Titan at the time, they would have killed me by now.”

“They’ll adjust. They just need time,” Gamora said. Nebula didn’t reply. Eventually she got up and went up to her room. She could hear Tony and Dr. Strange talking as she passed by the doctor’s room, and rolled her eyes at the smell of alcohol. She saw Peter and T’Challa talking outside, and Steve and Bucky laughing about something on Steve’s phone. She smiled slightly and headed up to her room and fell asleep.

 

Peter was outside when T’Challa found him. Not all the way outside, no one was allowed all the way outside, but he was in the courtyard, which they had all agreed to count as half way so that people could get some fresh air if they needed it.

“Hello, Peter,” he said, sitting down beside him.

“Oh! Hi, Mr. King T’Challa, sir!” he stuttered. He had been to out of it when in the golden light to fully realise that he’d been talking to the king of fricken Wakanda, and had been mortified when he came to to discover that he had referred to him as he would MJ, or Ned. T’Challa had tried repeatedly to get him to just call him T’Challa, but Peter continued on with the titles, which were slightly hilarious.

“It is peaceful out here,” T’Challa noted, looking up through the shields at the billions of stars beyond.

“Y-yeah, we’re not due for missile attacks, are we?” Peter asked, not wanting the night ruined by explosions.

“No, we have picked up no signs of a launch,” T’Challa assured him. “How are you doing. Stark tells me the nightmares are lessening.”

“Oh! Right, yeah they aren’t as bad. They come and go,” Peter replied, fidgeting nervously. “H-how are you?” he asked awkwardly.

“The same,” T’Challa replied. “Ross wants your name, you know,” he added. “Tony’s been putting up one Hell of a fight. So has Pepper.”

“Really?”   
“You hadn’t heard? While she may not be able to fly to Wakanda to join us, Pepper has been maging her own war on Ross. As has your Aunt May, and your friend MJ. They are truly wonderful women,” T’Challa said. “You should watch the news more,” T’Challa commented, handing Peter an ipad showing people marching in protest, and interviews with Pepper. MJ had apparently started a tumblr movement which had spread across basically every social media platform, and May had started organising marches, and spreading the word through New York.

“I had no idea. Wow, I just-wow,” Peter said.

“They are turning Ross’s own country against him. If he surrenders to us, it will have been because of them.”

“Yeah,” Peter agreed, a smile tugging at his lips. “Yeah, it will.”

“Have you seen Sergeant Barnes? I wish to speak with him as well,” T’Challa said, remembering their earlier conversation. He had promised himself he’d check in with the man and make sure that Steve was aware of what was going on.

“Yeah, I think he’s inside with Steve. Steve introduced him to ‘How it Should Have Ended’ videos, and now they won’t stop watching them,” Peter explained. It had been him and Shuri that had gotten Steve hooked on them, and now their work was paying off. He had a feeling that Tony would not be pleased.

“I will let them have their fun, I will see to him later,” T’Challa said, knowing from experience that one did not simply interrupt someone watching youtube. Shuri had made sure he paid dearly for that mistake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LegacyofLight.tumblr.com


	3. The Bone Breaks, It Grows Back Stronger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ross sucks. Need I say more?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright! Sorry I've been gone these past few days, I've been preparing for a violin recital, and have also been short on time with all my regular tests and quizzes. I am beginning my editing project on the second part of this series, so it may take a bit longer to get chapters out than usual as I'll also be doing that. Enjoy chapter three!

The night was filled with stars, not a single cloud blocking them. There had not been a night like this in months. “Sir, I will need confirmation.”   
“Yes, go ahead with the launch,” Ross said, looking up at the sky. It was a shame to ruin such a beautiful sky, but some things had to be done.   
“Yes, sir,” the woman on the other side of the earpiece, Reyna, said. Ross thought he could hear reluctance in her voice, but decided not to say anything. He watched as the missiles were readied, and heard Reyna give the orders to launch them. He knew that they would do nothing to destroy Wakanda, his engineers had yet to figure out a way to break down the shields, but it would have an effect. Missiles of this strength would cause some amount of damage. He knew for a fact that there were many injured people within the shields, and the jarring of said shields with the impact of the missiles would surely do them harm.   
“The missiles have been readied,”Reyna said into the earpiece.   
“Fire,” he ordered. He watched as they flew off into the night, blocking the stars from sight as they passed. He would send another message to Wakanda once they’d had a chance to gather themselves and once more request the Avengers and company be turned over to him. He knew that he would not be able to keep this up much longer, he was on a short leash as it was. The president and congress were not pleased with the protests going on, and were threatening to order him to surrender unless he got them results, and fast. The cost was also proving problematic. If he fired to many more of the missiles that would do actual damage on the shields, than the taxpayers would turn on him, not wanting to have to pay for a war they didn’t support.   
Ross headed back into the main control room and stood beside Reyna as she watched the missiles progress towards Wakanda.   
“Are you sure this is the right call?” she finally asked. “I mean, all this for the Avengers?”   
“Yes. They are dangerous, and must be handled properly before this gets out of hand,” Ross replied firmly. Reyna pursed her lips and turned her attention back to the screens in front of her, clearly wanting to say more but thinking better of it.   
“We are approaching the target,” one of the other people in the room said.   
“Any sign of an interception?” Ross asked.   
“None that we can detect, sir,” a man, Ferris, replied. Ross nodded his approval, and continued to watch the screens carefully. “Wait, I think I’m getting something… SHIT!” Ferris yelled, right as one of the missiles exploded in mid air, taking a second out as well.   
“What is happening? Why could we not detect that sooner!” Reyna asked urgently, going from computer to computer to get eyes on the remaining missiles, which were still on course.   
“I-I don’t know, they must have some sort of advanced cloaking device,” Ferris stuttered, flinching as another missile went up in flames.   
“We’ve lost three, seventeen are still on target,” Someone from across the room reported. “Make that five,” he added as two more missiles were shot down.   
“Are the others going to make it?” Ross asked.   
“We can’t tell for sure, but it looks like it, yeah,” Ferris replied. He was right. 

 

Tony woke to the sound of explosions. He sat bolt upright and looked around wildly before running to his window to stare up at the shields, which seemed to be glowing blue and orange as flames exploded across their surfaces and burned pieces away.   
“Well, shit,” he grumbled to himself, quickly racing out of his room and running straight into Steve, who was doing the same thing.   
“Meeting room?” Steve asked.   
“Yup, just gotta get someone,” Tony said, pushing past him. Steve nodded and raced to Bucky’s room where he found said man half out the door already. Tony ran swiftly down the hall until he reached Peter’s room, where the teenager was just coming out of the door, wearing full spiderman gear, and seeming to have instant kill mode activated.   
“Mr. Stark? W-what’s going on?” he asked.   
“Surprise attack on the shields, American missiles,” Tony replied, leading Peter down the hall where they met up with Wanda and Shuri as they came up from the lab.   
“Shuri, how much of this can those shields take?” Tony asked worriedly.   
“I’m not sure, your people’s missiles are strong, and the shields are already in a weakened state from all the work that’s been done on them,” she explained as they ran for the meeting room.   
“Well that is quite impressive,” They heard Loki’s voice say as they rounded a corner to see him and Thor looking out a large window at the flames licking at the shields. “Quite an interesting creation you midgardians have made. Not as sophisticated as Asgard's, but interesting,” the mischief god noted.   
“Well glad you like it,” Tony growled, pulling the two gods with the larger group and into the main meeting room. Okoye and T’Challa had been there all night from the looks of it, and Bucky and Steve were there as well, along with Nebula, Palmarius, and the Guardians. Rhodey and Bruce came running in next, followed by Sam, and Clint.   
“What the Hell is going on?” Bruce asked.   
“Ross,” Dr. Strange answered, coming in a little after the others, his cloak wrapping tightly around him as if it thought it could shield him from the missiles.   
“I’m sure tomorrow we’ll get a nice little note about unnecessary blood spilt, and us needing to turn ourselves in,” Sam mocked, the others nodding in agreement.   
“T’Challa, what do you want us to do?” Bucky asked. The king looked worn thin. He had dark bags under his half lidded eyes, and was lacking his usually perfect posture.   
“I think, for now, we wait it out. All citizens are being evacuated if they are near unstable areas of the shields, we can see the damages come morning,” he said with a sigh, running a hand over his face. Okoye nodded in agreement and Shuri lay a comforting hand on her brothers shoulder.   
“For now, everyone stay in here,” Okoye instructed, getting no resistance. Everyone settled down, flinching whenever a missile hit, and trying to ignore them, to little avail.   
“It will be fine, brother,” Thor said, draping an arm around Loki’s shoulder when he noticed the other god flinch when a missile struck directly above them.   
“I would not be so sure about that, Thor,” he said with a hollow laugh. “This Ross fellow does not seem like the relenting type. He will destroy the entire nation before he loses, trust me, I know.”   
“Well at least we’ll burn together,” Thor said, squeezing his arm lightly.   
“Thor, in what way is that helpful in the slightest?” Loki asked, looking at his brother incredulously.   
“Because we’ll be with those that matter to us. We’ll be with family,” Thor finally said, pulled Loki closer so that his head was leaning on the God of Thunder’s shoulder, and Thor’s red cloak was draped across both of them.   
“I hate you, brother,” Loki said, not moving.   
“I know you don’t,” Thor said gently. “And someday, you will too.” 

 

“You hanging on okay, kid?” Tony asked as he and Peter both flinched at a particularly load missile.   
“Yeah, perfect,” Peter responded distractedly, fidgeting with his hands.   
“What are you thinking about?” Tony asked, knowing there was something more going on in the kid’s head than he was letting Tony see. Peter didn’t answer at first, making Tony think that he was being given the silent treatment. Finally, though, Peter managed to find the words.   
“It just reminds me of the Vulture. You know, the sound of explosions. The sound of falling buildings, the dust everywhere, it’s all the same,” Peter said with a shrug. In his mind he knew that this building wasn’t going to fall on him, and that even if it did, people were there to help him, but he was still scared.   
“It’s alright,” Tony assured him. “We’re safe in here,” he whispered, looking out the window at the flames eating away at the shields, and positioned his body in front of Peter so that the kid couldn’t see the damage being done. Peter seemed to know what he was doing, but didn’t seem to care. He didn’t want to look at it anyway.   
People from farther out in the city were being moved into the large building, and engineers were already setting up for repairs on the shields. The missiles lasted little over five minutes, but it looked as if it had been hours. The shields had given out in small areas, and the land underneath was burned and destroyed, leaving families homeless, and vendors jobless.   
Shuri divided her time between remaking Vision, and helping the other engineers with making stronger shields while Okoye made arrangements for those left homeless, and tried to calm the people of Wakanda with Ramonda. Wanda used her powers to try and knit some of the larger parts of the shields back together temporarily while the engineers were working on newer ones in case Ross decided to attack again. It was draining, but worth it.   
“Pepper’s launching another media attack,” Bruce said, walking up to Rhodey. “She’d ripping him apart.” Rhodey smiled, just imagining what Pepper was doing.   
“I’ll bet she is. Has Tony seen it yet?”   
“Not sure, probably. The country definitely has, and they’re listening. Sooner or later public opinion is going to either end this, or keep it going. We want as much of it on our side as we can get,” Bruce replied.   
“I hate to say it, but Bruce is right,” Natasha agreed, joining the other two. “The people are going to start rioting if this gets too out of hand. We need to use that. Do you know if Okoye has released a statement yet?”  
“Yeah, just something inspirational and fierce to make sure America knows that we’re still alive, and we’re now pissed,” Rhodey said. “Something about us building ourselves stronger than ever to fight for our rights, and yadda, yadda, yadda.”   
“Well, it’ll have to work,” Natasha said, the others nodding in agreement.


	4. Can Beauty Come Out of Ashes?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They begin to recover, only to find that the threat does not plan on going out quietly. Also! Quill gets yelled at for punching Thanos.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! It's been a while! I'm back though! I hope you guys like this one!

As the sun rose, people slowly began to creep out of the buildings they’d taken shelter in and started taking in the damage done by the missiles from the previous night. They had burned through good portions of the the shields and destroyed any buildings beneath the damaged areas.

T’Challa had ordered repairs to begin immediately, and air patrols were being doubled. Shuri had even been forced to give up her satellite so that they may be able to use it to spot incoming missiles quicker than before. Shuri hadn’t been too pleased to lose her satellite, but had not argued to much given the gravity of the situation.

“I can’t believe they actually did this,” Peter whispered, staring around with large eyes.

“I can,” Tony said bitterly. “It’s Ross, he does whatever he needs in order to get what he wants.” They watched as engineers made inspection after inspection of the damaged areas and took notes, sending messages to people in labs who would analyse the data and design new shields.

“You think there’s going to be more missiles?” Steve asked, walking over with Bucky and Natasha.

“Not sure,” Tony replied. “T’Challa doesn’t seem to think so, but he didn’t expect this either so I’m not so sure if I believe him or not.”

“They won’t,” Natasha said. “They don’t have the money or support to launch another attack of this size right away. I mean, practically the whole country is against this. It’s only a matter of time before Ross is told no,” she reasoned.

“That makes sense,” Bucky agreed. “Any word from back home?”

“Yeah, Aunt May called to check up and make sure we were, you know, alive,” Peter said. “Apparently the media battle is going well. #WakandaForever is trending according to MJ.”

“Hopefully it’s enough,” Bucky replied. They lapsed into silence, all watching the people of Wakanda try to get their lives back into some sort of order before Tony decided to head in.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I got no sleep last night. Missiles make a terrible lullaby,” he said, heading in. Tony had a point. Nobody had slept at all the previous night, as everyone was too nervous.   
“I think Tony's right,” Steve agreed with a yawn. “You should head in too, kid,” he said to Peter. “You look awful.”

“Rude, Steve,” Bucky chastised. “He has a point though, we should all get some sleep.” The others nodded in agreement, no one even trying to stay awake much longer.   
“If they call lunch and I’m still asleep, no one wake me,” Peter called as he headed in.

“Got it,” Dr. Strange said, passing him as he headed out to check up on the shields. “Hey, Natasha, have you seen Dr. Banner?”

“Yeah, I think he’s in a meeting with Okoye and Palmarius at the moment, why?”

“I just wanted to talk to him a bit,” he said. “I read some of his research a while back and thought it was interesting.”

“Ah, it was very well done,” Tony said, coming back outside to grab his sweatshirt, which he’d left on a bench. “He should be out pretty soon.”

“Thanks Tony,” the doctor replied. “Enjoy your nap!”

“Oh, I will. If any of you wake me up, you are going to be blasted through that shield!”

 

T’Challa messaged his temples as he read through another report concerning the attack from the previous night. He had not seen it coming, had not expected America to launch a full scale missile attack so soon. When he thought back to the fateful night, all he could remember was his conversation with Peter. He’d been assuring the kid as much as himself that there would be no missiles that night. He had been very wrong indeed.

“Brother, we have finished our inspections of the shields,” Shuri’s voice said, cutting through T’Challa’s thoughts like a boat through water.

“And?” the king asked.

“And we are now making better shields?” Shuri said uncertainly, not sure what T’Challa wanted to hear.

“How were the American’s missiles able to penetrate them?”   
“We are not sure. I suppose we have never really tested them with the technologies of the rest of the world before. America used something we were not expecting. We will not make the same mistake again, brother,” Shuri assured him.

“What of Vision?” he asked, remembering how excited Wanda had been when Shuri had begun to remake him. “Are you still recreating him?”

“I’m doing as much as I can, but I will need the original machine that was used to create him. With the travel ban, there’s no way to get it here.”

“I see,” T’Challa said, a thoughtful expression crossing his face. “What about Scott Lang?” he asked suddenly.

“The Ant Man?” Shuri asked, brow furrowed. “What about him? He is currently in America with Pepper and May Parker-”

“Exactly. How did he get there?”

“He snuck across the border in his shrinking suit…The suit! He can smuggle us the machine by shrinking it down!” she exclaimed excitedly.

“Exactly!” T’Challa said. “Have Stark get in contact with him once he has gotten his rest. According to Dr. Strange, we are not to wake him under any circumstance,” he said with a slight smirk.

“I am busy brother! You can tell Stark yourself!” she said, heading to her lab. T’Challa shook his head before returning to the report he was reading. Sisters.

 

 

The wind brushed through the canopy of leaves above him, and Bucky looked around, his metal arm clenching and unclenching as he tightened his other hand around his gun.

“He’s here.” The wind remained the only sound, the sudden lack of battlefield noise unsettling. They fired at Thanos. Bruce was frozen in stone, and Natasha was trapped on the ground. Then Steve grabbed his hand, trying to buy Wanda more time. Bucky felt a scream ripped from his throat as Steve was thrown away like a dog toy.

He could feel his body begin to tingle and then burn. A howling filled his ears along with desperate screaming from voices he couldn’t quite place.

“Steve?” he was falling, no disappearing. He was gone. The pain built and roared through his veins and his vision was turning gold. A silhouette was running towards him, pointed shield in hand.

 

“Bucky!”

 

His sight was filled with harsh light. “Help!” he was alone, no one was going to find him. The light was pulsing around him as he slowly fading from existence.

 

“BUCKY!” his eyes snapped open and he lashed out at the figure above him only to feel his metal arm grabbed and held fast. “Bucky! It’s me!” a familiar voice said.

“Steve?” he asked hoarsely.

“Yeah, yeah it’s me,” Steve said, releasing his arm.

“W-what are you doing in here?” Bucky asked.

“You were screaming. I thought you were hurt or something so I kind of destroyed the keypad,” Steve admit, blushing slightly as Bucky took in the demolished lock.

“I was just-”

“Having a nightmare,” Steve finished for him. “T’Challa told me.”

“Of course he did,” Bucky grumbled, reminding himself to confront the king later. “Look, it’s really not that big a deal, you can go do whatever you were doing,” Bucky said quickly, embarrassed to be caught in such a vulnerable state.

“I’m not leaving you like this,” Steve said seriously.

“You don’t have to-” Before Bucky could finish though, he found himself wrapped in a hug.

“I’m with you,” Steve stated. “‘Till the end of the line.”

“You sentinemtal little shit,” Bucky grumbled playfully.

“Language!”

 

Gamora glared at Quill, who seemed to be somehow growing smaller under her sharp gaze. “You did WHAT!” she yelled, making the Starlord flinch. “Do you mean to tell me that you almost had the gauntlet off Thanos, and you PUNCHED HIM IN THE FACE!”

“Gamora-”

“Oh no! We are far from finished. What made you think that was a good idea? He had almost all the infinity stones, would be able to crush you like a bug even without them, and was being restrained by a thread!”

“He’d thrown you over a cliff! He’d thrown you over a cliff for a fancy rock!” 

“That doesn’t mean ruin the entire operation!” Gamora argued, successfully shutting Quill up. She sighed and closed her eyes for a few seconds before taking a deep breath and opening them once more. “Next time we do a job, I’m in charge she said before stalking back to her room. Quill stood in silence for a second before Drax’s load laugh made him jump.

“HA! She just kicked you out of command! You must be so humiliated!” he laughed, making Mantis laugh as well.

“Well it doesn’t matter much anyway,” Rocket said with a smirk. “I am the captain after all!”

“I am Groot!”

“Um, not to interrupt this, but I’ve got a message from Okoye,” Palmarius said, walking a little ways into the room where the group was relaxing.

“You are anxious,” Mantis noted with concern. “What is the message?”

“America, they still hasn’t surrendered, and we have reason to believe that another team may be coming,” she said.

“What do you mean ‘a team?’ Quill asked.

“American soldiers. An invasion!” Palmarius said impatiently.

“Where did you hear that?” Rocket asked. “I mean, after all the missiles you’d think they’d take a little break or something.”

“That’s exactly why they’re doing it. Ross knows he can’t keep this up much longer, so he’s getting out all the attacks he has. He wants to hurt us, and so far it’s working. As for the information, just because Captain Marvel is hiding out back in America doesn’t mean she isn’t helping us behind the scenes. She has good reason to believe that we should expect an attack, and soon.” Rocket’s ears drooped. Shit.

 

“So, you’re sure about this?” Tony asked Dr. Strange, who had been the one to deliver the message to him and Peter.

“Positive. We don’t have an exact time frame yet, but we know they’re coming,” Strange repeated. Peter looked between the two mean with wide eyes.

“So, Ross is throwing us everything he’s got,” Tony muttered to himself. “It’s a good sign if you think about it. Really, it is. I mean, even he seems to know he’s gonna be shut down soon.”

“Yes, well we can celebrate after we have working shields and know the threat that’s marching towards us,” Strange said.

“Um, sorry to interrupt, but what exactly is going on?” Peter asked. “I mean, can’t we just do a giant satellite scan and see what’s coming? Why’s everyone freaking out?”

“Because, nothing's coming. A satellite scan was the first thing Shuri did and she picked up nothing. We’ve got one set to go every hour.”

“So, we know nothing?” Peter asked.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Tony agreed. “Alright, doc, what else do ya need?”

“T’Challa wanted me to tell you that you need to get in contact with Scott Lang. Something about smuggling a tiny robot maker across the border…?”

“Oh My God, that’s genius!” Tony exclaimed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LegacyofLight.tumblr.com


	5. And I Got a Feeling, a Danger is Coming...A Danger is Coming...Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone holds their breaths as they wait for an untraceable attack, and Ross buys himself a bit more time from the president.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I'm back! For those of you who want to know a bit more about what happened before this story arc thing takes place, I've begun writing short one shots under 'Eye of the Hurricane', if you want to check that out. My goal is to get this story done by the end of June as I leave for the summer to the land of no wifi on June 22, and won't be able to write until next year. If, however, I am unable to reach that goal, than I will make an announcement before I leave. The story WILL NOT be abandoned, so don't lose hope! Enjoy!

Wanda sat in one of the chairs in Shuri’s large lab, watching as Shuri ran a number of tests on the mind stone. When she wasn’t helping engineer the new shield designs, she was working with it. She had told Wanda about her plan to have Scott Lang smuggle the device that had first made Vision a body across the border, but had made sure to emphasize that it would take time. Until then, she would be preparing the mind stone and trying to gather all the information she could on it. She was also dragging Tony and Bruce into her lab all the time to have them try and recreate Vision’s mind sequence. It was going far from perfectly.   
“So, do you think they can do it?” Wanda asked as Tony and Bruce were once again summoned to Shuri’s lab.   
“I’m not sure,” Shuri replied. “It was years ago that they first created him, and they didn’t take any notes at all. There is a good chance that the Vision that comes back will be different from the Vision you remember. Are you prepared for that?”   
“I have to be,” Wanda replied. Truthfully, she had no idea if she could handle it. She didn’t even know if they’d be able to bring him back. “How are the shields coming?” she asked, changing the subject.   
“They are going well,” Shuri replied, bringing up a holographic design. “We have strengthened them, and are now testing them against American missiles. Stark has agreed to help us design the prototype.” Wanda shuddered as she thought about the missiles that Stark could design. She knew he didn’t sell them anymore, and any that he made for Wakanda’s tests would be destroyed, but she still didn’t like to think about it. “They should be up by the end of the day, six o’clock latest,” Shuri was saying, swiping to a different screen to check on the engineering team.   
“Well hopefully we’ll be safe till then,” Wanda said.   
“I hope so. As long as that team Captain Marvel was warning us about stays back, we should be fine. If they get here before those shields go up though…” she trailed off, leaving what they both knew to be true unsaid. If the team arrived in Wakanda, there would be war. Wakanda would win, as they had much higher technology and were on their home turf, but there would be casualties on both sides.   
“Is there any news on Ross? Has he been shut down yet?”   
“No, but many people are calling for him to be kicked out of his position. Not just America, their allies aren’t too happy with his performance either,” Shuri replied. “It’s only a matter of time before he’s given the boot. He knows it too.”   
“I hope it’s sooner rather than later,” Wanda said. “The sooner this is called off, the sooner we can get back to normal.” They sat in silence until a yell from Shuri cut it like a knife.   
“STARK! DON’T TOUCH THAT!” she called, swatting his hand away from some sort of machine. “My lab, my rules! Now go back to fixing Vision’s mind!” 

 

Pepper scrolled through her news feed, a small smile gracing her lips for the first time in weeks. She had just finished giving another press conference to speak out about the war against Wakanda, and the response was perfect. People all over were calling for Ross’s removal, along with other countries. She looked up when F.R.I.D.A.Y alerted her that a transmission was coming through, and quickly hit accept upon seeing it was from Wakanda.   
“Hey Pepper,” Tony said, as a hologram popped up to show him, Palmarius, Peter, and Steve.   
“Hello Tony, you look tired,” she noted.   
“Yeah, it’s been busy here. I just got back from trying to remake Vision’s mind with Bruce and Shuri,” he explained. “Has Scott left with the thing yet?” he asked.   
“Yeah, he headed out this morning,” Pepper replied. “It’ll be a while though, he has to sneak through a ton of security.”   
“I know, just wanted to know if he was in route,” Tony said. “So, saw the press confrence, great job by the way.”   
“Yeah, the response was great,” she replied. “Now, we just have to wait.”   
“Do you think we’ll be able to come home soon?” Peter blurted out, eyes wide and hopeful. Tony seemed to droop at his words and Pepper looked at him curiously.   
“Peter, there’s something we should really talk about,” Tony started. Oh God, he hadn’t told him, Pepper realised.   
“W-what is it Mr. Stark?”   
“Even if Ross does get fired, the accords will still stand.”   
“So?” Peter asked, nervous energy radiating off him in waves.   
“So, according to those damn papers, we’re all war criminals. Not just Cap and the rogues,” Tony explained. “You’ll be able to go back ‘cause they don’t know your identity, but the rest of us will have to stay away. That will also mean no more Spiderman unless you want a S.W.A.T team showing up on rooftops cutting your webbing away and dragging you to federal prison,” Tony explained. Peter seemed to mentally shatter in front of him.   
“I-I can’t go home?” he asked in small voice.   
“No. No, we’re getting you home. That’s the worst case scenario. We’ll fix this,” Pepper said. “Once Ross is gone, we’ll negotiate new accords. Preferably ones that we write ourselves. Peter nodded, but he seemed unsure.   
“Hey, Pepper’s right, kid,” Steve assured him. Even if things do go south and the rest of us have to stay here, you’ll still be able to go back.”   
“Yeah, and I’ll still be able to go with you,” Palmarius pointed out, briefly shifting her form to make herself look like her fake identity, Mindy Zafai, before turning back to Palmarius.   
“And we can still sneak back into the country if anything really bad happens. Stark’ll just have to get used to staying in crappy hotels instead of privet towers,” Steve said, earning himself an elbow in the ribs from the other man.   
“Steve’s right, it’s not like we haven’t broken into countries before,” Tony agreed. “And besides, we’ll get Ross out of power. Now, any word on the alleged elite team of warriors being sent to destroy us?”   
“No, Carol hasn’t been able to get any more information, and S.H.I.E.L.D has nothing either. I’m sorry, Tony, but who ever is coming is completely off the radar. I don’t know how, but they are.”   
“How is that even possible?” Steve asked. “I mean, how does someone avoid satellite searches?”   
“I don’t know,” Tony said. “We’re screwed if they’re close, though. The shields won’t be up until tonight, so anyone can get in.   
“I believe you’re forgetting the fact that we have all our troops guarding the borders,” Okoye said, walking into the hologram. “If they think they can just waltz in, they have got another thing coming.”   
“Have they seen anything?” Peter asked.   
“Not yet, but they are on high alert. We will know immediately if anyone passes into our territory,” Okoye responded. She left what would then happen to the soldiers unsaid, but everyone already knew. They would be slaughtered. Every last one. 

“Loki, no,” Thor said, glaring at the snake sitting on his pillow. The snake looked at him for a second before glowing green and shifting back into Loki, who had a dagger clutched in his hand.   
“Well, it was worth a shot,” he said with a shrug. “So, who’s coming to kill us now?” he asked, earning a glare from Thor. “Is it still the Americans, who you fought so valiantly to protect?”   
“It is not their fault, Ross is just blind,” Thor said, earning a smirk from his brother who was now twirling the blade in his fingers.   
“See it as you will, brother,” Loki said, leaning back on the pillows and watching the blade move with keen eyes. “Do you know when we’ll be allowed to leave this accursed building?” he asked next.   
“I don’t know, I doubt anytime soon,” Thor responded. Loki groaned and stood up, walking over to the window to gaze mournfully to the outside world.   
“Oh quit the dramatics,” Thor grumbled. “Your theatricality grows tiresome.”   
“Well, you wouldn’t have to deal with it,” Loki responded. “I’d think that you must have rather enjoyed your break from it when I was dead,” he said casually. Thor narrowed his eyes. So this was Loki’s mood. Bored to the point of picking fights.   
“I will not oblige your need for pointless quarles,” Thor finally said, making Loki sigh.   
“Well then why are you here,” Loki growled.   
“You do realise you’re in my room, right?” Thor asked, gesturing around them.   
“Yes, I suppose I am,” Loki said with a sigh. “I must ask though, why do you allow me in here? I have done nothing but annoy you, and that is the best of it,” Loki said, walking back over to the far wall and leaning back against it.   
“We have been over this, Loki,” Thor replied, making the God of Mischief groan.   
“No, you’ve been over this. I still lack an answer.”   
“Because though our blood is not the same, nor is our race, we are still brothers. And brothers don’t abandon each other, no matter what comes to pass,” Thor said firmly. Loki looked at him with an unreadable expression, as he always did when trying to sort through many emotions at once.   
“That is not what you said after New York,” he finally said, and Thor flinched at the memory. Of finally going to visit his brother after not having seen him at all. Of seeing the mess that he had become. Of threatening to kill him. Though Loki had grinned it off, he could tell it had shocked him. Thor was the last person he’d expect to end him.   
“Well I’m saying it now,” Thor replied with a bit more aggression than he intended. Loki gaze him a calculating look before turning away.   
“I shall be speaking with Palmarius if you need me. I believe it is about time I made peace with the infinity stones,” he said, getting up and leaving Thor’s room without meeting his eyes. Thor sighed as he watched his brother leave. It would take a while, but things would get better. 

 

“Mr. Secretary, this is getting out of hand,” the president said. “The people are taking to the streets, Wakanda has yet to fire back but they could decimate the entire country with the press of one button, and the Avengers show no signs of leaving!”   
“Mr. President, I can assure you we will get results, we just need some more time,” Ross said. His calm demeanor seemed almost alien to anyone who actually knew the man.   
“Fine, Ross. But if this gets worse, I will be expecting a resignation,” the president said, eyes boring into the secretary’s skull. Ross swallowed and nodded jerkily.   
“Of course sir.” He was dismissed by a wave of the president’s hand, and walked stiffly out of the room. He had bought himself a bit more time, but he knew he didn’t have long. If Wakanda attempted to fight back, he would be destroyed. If the people began to riot, he would be fired. If the Avengers decided to fight, it was all over. He pulled out a burner phone from his back pocket and hit the only contact, beginning to speak the second that the other person picked up. “Reyna, I need you to alert the teams. We attack at 2400 sharp.”   
He didn’t wait for a response before hanging up and getting into his car to drive out to oversee preparations for the attack. This was a war he could not win, but he’d be damned if he didn’t make them suffer with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LegacyofLight.tumblr.com


	6. They'll Tell the Story of Tonight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ross strikes. 'Nough said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Major character death!  
> Dang it's been a while! I've gotten slow with these! Anyways, a character does die in this chapter, so just a warning about that. 
> 
> ALSO: completely unrelated, I want to start reading theCaptain America comics while I'm away at camp, is 'Captain America Essentials Vol. 1' a good place to start?

**1300**

No matter how happy Bucky felt when Steve had stayed with him after the nightmare, he still confronted T’Challa who only watched with mild amusement as he ranted for a good twenty minutes about privacy.

“Are you saying that you would have been better off alone?” he finally asked. “What? No. I need Steve. That’s a known fact, I just- you can’t- stop being right!” he grumbled, making the king outright laugh.

“I did not wish to intrude on your private matters. I would not have told Captain Rogers anything had he not asked me.”

“He- wait, he asked you?" “Yes. He is worried about you, and he knew that I would know something from our time in the golden light. As he guessed, I did. Had I not told him, he would have only asked young Peter, and I saw no reason to bother him with it, so I told him myself,” T’Challa explained. Bucky tried to keep up his glare, he really did, but he just ended up smiling slightly.

“Well I suppose you were right. As usual.”

“Of course I was. Now I have a meeting with Okoye and M’Baku, and you have to go find Rogers and tell him that because of his questioning, I had to get an earful,” T’Challa said, exiting the room. Bucky grinned and headed off towards Steve’s room.

“Steve! The king’s mad at you!”“

 

"Are all systems online?” Ross asked, looking around at the computer screens that surrounded them. “Yes sir, everything is ready to go,” Reyna said. Was that hesitation in her voice? Ross couldn’t be sure. He liked Reyna. She was good at her job and never questioned his orders, but this whole sympathy thing she had going on wasn’t working for him. “Have you got something to say, Reyna?” he snapped, glaring at her from where he stood and making everyone else in the room look up. “N-no sir,” she whispered. Ross nodded once before turning his attention back to the screens.

 

**1500**

Peter webbed up the robotic training partner that he was practicing with, knocking it’s feet out from under it easily. Tony had been taking advantage of Shuri’s lab to upgrade everyone’s gear, and Peter was definitely reaping the benefits.

The iron spider suit now had even more web configurations, which the teen didn’t even know was possible, and extra web storage, which Peter was currently emptying on an assortment of training bots. The suit was also now designed to send out an alert to any nearby stark-designed suits whenever Peter’s vitals dropped, but that was more for Mr. Stark’s benefit than his.

Peter was also coming up with ways to make his webs stronger and more durable. Shuri’s lab had everything, and he was welcome to even more supplies than Mr. Stark was as Shuri liked him better. Wanda was often in the lab as well, watching as Shuri worked with the mind stone to try and recreate Vision. Scott Lang didn’t seem to be having to many problems getting the machine to them, but it would take time. Now that the new shields were up around Wakanda, Shuri could donate far more of her time to the ‘Vision Crisis’, as people were now calling it.

Peter wasn’t the only one training to try and pass time. He could see Natasha and Okoye locked in a sparring session, and Nebula destroying one of the training bots and then taking on another. Gamora was a little ways away training with Drax, who was losing horribly to the assassin. Palmarius and Loki were the only two in the room not engaged in some sort of combat. The two seemed to be in deep conversation, as Palmarius fingered the stones on her circlet.

“Hey Peter,” the voice of Bruce Banner said from the doorway to the training room. Peter immediately stopped webbing up the bots and shut them down with a clap.

“H-hey Dr. Banner,” he said nervously, still trying to accept the fact that he was speaking face to face with Bruce Banner.

“I finished running the DNA from the tests we did earlier, thought you might want to see what I found,” he said.

Since everyone was stuck inside the main building, Peter had had the idea to talk to Bruce about figuring out just how much of himself had been affected by the spider bite. Bruce had agreed to help him out and taken some blood samples for different tests to run, and to get a look at his DNA to see how different that was. Tony had agreed to let them do it, but only if Bruce promised to destroy everything he found so that Ross couldn’t get his hands on it. It was for this reason that all of his notes were handwritten as well.

“Oh cool!” Peter said. “So, how weird is it?”

“Actually, not that strange. I mean, I was preparing for some really crazy stuff, maybe an x-gene factor or something, but your DNA is mostly human. The main anomalies are spider related, but I think there are a few changes because of the weird limbo place as well,” he said. “I’m not entirely sure, but your DNA currently displays a similar energy signature to that of the soul stone, just far lesser. I’m going to see if I can get some DNA from Barnes or T’Challa to see if they are showing the same signs, but that’s my hypothesis,” Bruce explained. “I haven’t finished all the other tests because Shuri needed her equipment back, but I’ll be done soon.”

“Awesome! I’ll get down to Shuri’s lab later and check it out!” Peter said excitedly. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that this was the first time he knew anything about his changed DNA, or anything that had happened to him because of the spider bite.

 

“Alright Reyna, how we looking?” Ross asked. “All troops are in position and setting up camp. They attack on your signal,” she reported, staring straight forward at the screen in front of her and not allowing herself to show any emotion. “And has Wakanda surrendered?” “No, we have heard nothing from them, or the Avengers that they’re sheltering. They don’t know we’re there, and if all goes well, they won’t until the attack’s begun,” Reyna said. Ross nodded in approval. “Good,” Ross said.

 

**1800**

“Any word from Scott?” Dr. Strange asked Tony as the two watched Shuri continue studying the mind stone.

“No, nothing. Last I heard he was nearing the Wakanda border, but that was yesterday. He never called in today,” Stark said, sounding slightly worried.

“I’m sure he has a good reason. Maybe he accidently sent his phone subatomic,” Strange joked, getting a small smile out of Tony. “Have you guys gotten any new information on the mystery army coming our way?”

“No, the satellites aren’t picking anything up,” Tony replied in frustration. “For all we know, they’re already here.” They sat in silence as Shuri worked and talked to Wanda about Vision.

“What do you think will happen to the Avengers? I mean, will they get back together after all this?” Strange asked, saying exactly what Tony had been wondering himself ever since arriving in Wakanda. “I mean, if the accords go down with Ross will they come back to New York?”

“I don’t know. I mean, I’ve been updating their gear like I used to. I just made Sam some new wings and a better dive bomb feature. I like to think that we’re back to normal, but I know better than that,” Tony replied. “Do you think you’ll fight?” he asked, turning to face the other man.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean if the American army comes, do you think you’ll stand against them?”

“Will you?”

“No idea.”

 

“Troops are standing by,” Jason reported to Ross. Reyna had taken a break, so Jason had taken over for her while she was getting some air.

“And the shields? Are they still hidden from satellites?”

“Yeah, no one will be able to see them coming,” Jason replied smugly. He had been part of the team that had helped develop the technology that his their soldiers from satellites. They both looked up when Reyna came back into the dark room. She looked around self consciously and quickly shuffled back to her spot besides Ross, head down.

“Glad you could join us Reyna,” Ross said, making her flinch. He looked around at the other faces who were watching the exchange with baited breath. “Back to work!” he barked, making everyone jump and return to their tasks.

 

**2000**

Bucky looked out a large window, T’Challa and Steve beside him. The moon was a shimmering mirage in the dark sky, thin, foggy clouds passing over it like ghosts. The city was empty, everyone still resigned to their homes.

“It’s silent out there,” Steve observed. Bucky nodded, not remembering a time when the city had looked so deserted.

“The shields are up, so that’s good,” Bucky said. Shuri had assured them that these shields would protect them from aerial attacks much better than the previous ones. T’Challa said nothing, only looking out at the city with a thoughtful gaze. “You see anything out there, T’Challa?” Bucky asked, noticing the way the king was staring so intensely at the burnt city bellow.

“I have received word from Carol Danvers. There will be an attack tonight. 2400. American,” he stated calmly, holding a hand up to silence Steve and Bucky’s horrified gasps. “I did not wish to tell you, but you have the right to know. As I told you previously, I will not ask you to fight against your own people, but if they attack Wakanda I will not hesitate to shoot them down.”

“Understood,” Steve replied gravely. “I’ve gotta tell Stark. Bucky, an you alert the others?” Bucky nodded and headed down to the main room where he know he’d find the other Avengers and Guardians.

Steve ran down to the mini lab that Shuri had reluctantly given Stark (only because Peter had begged her to) where Steve knew Peter and Tony would be working instead of sleeping or socializing.

“So I was thinking we add a bit more power to the taser webs and- CAPTAIN ROGERS AMERICA, SIR!” Peter exclaimed, interrupting himself upon seeing Steve’s arrival.

“At ease, kid,” Steve said, to stressed to laugh at how adorable it all was.

“What’s up, Capsicle?” Tony asked, surprised to see Steve in the lab.

“We’re surrounded. Ross has soldiers poised to attack 2400,” Steve exclaimed.

“What! How?” Captain Marvel has a source on the inside, apparently they have some sort of tech that keeps them from being spotted by satellites,” Steve explained.

“So they’re here? Now!” Peter clarified, voicing rising in pitch. Steve nodded.

“Bucky’s alerting the others. We’re all to go to the meeting room, alert Pepper as well. She can prepare a statement.” Tony nodded and quickly guided Peter towards the door and practically dragged him down the hall to the meeting room where Okoye, M’Baku, T’Challa, the Avengers, Guardians, and various heros were waiting.

“They will attack at 2400. We have the advantage of our shields, and the fact that they don’t don’t know we’re coming,” T’Challa explained once everyone one settled.

“That and public image,” Tony added. “Wakanda has only fired back once, and it was basically just a warning shot.” T’Challa nodded, but didn’t look any less grave.

“We have alerted our first defenses, they are prepared and well hidden. We want Ross to believe that we are still ignorant,” Okoye reported.

“Wait, wait wait, where is this information from? I mean, how do we know this isn’t just a trap designed purely to make us paranoid?” Rhodey asked.

“Captain Marvel said she got it from someone close to the scene, and their information’s been good so far,” M’Baku explained.

“And they’re right again,” Loki said, striding back into the room. “I just checked it out, and there’s definitely someone out there,” the God of Mischief reported. The others stared at him and he sighed. “Look, I understand you do not trust me, but what benefit could I possibly reap from lying to you now? Had I wanted to destroy you, I would have begun already,” he said.

“Loki has a point,” Nebula said, stepping forward in defense of the surprised god. “Had he wanted to watch you burn, he would be destroying American cities in your name to cause more tension.” The others nodded in agreement and added Loki’s new information to the board.

“The city is being evacuated into the main building in small groups as not to raise suspicion,” Okoye reported. “They will not be permitted in the meeting room or labs, and I’ll make sure your rooms are off limits,” she added.

“Thank you Okoye,” Sam said.

“So, what exactly are we gonna do?” Peter asked nervously, looking around awkwardly when he realised everyone’s eyes were on him.

“For now? We wait,” Tony replied, squeezing his shoulder in reassurance. Peter nodded, but looked no less terrified than he had before.

“Alright, I doubt that there will be much sleeping getting done tonight, so are we cool to stay here?” Bruce asked.

“Of course, and you can head down to Shuri’s lab as well,” T’Challa replied, directing the last part mostly at Wanda who nodded in appreciation.

“Come on, kid,” Tony said, steering Peter towards the door. “As Bruce said tonight will not be a sleeping night, so tinkering with shit in the lab it is!” he said with false cheer that fell flat even to his own ears. Peter nodded in agreement, but said nothing.

 

Scott Lang snuck quietly through the trees, slipping under a fallen leaf and keeping a hand firmly on the case on his back with contained the newly tiny-a-fied Vision maker. The GPS on his suit told him that he was nearing the shields, but he had been given a passcode that would get him through them so that he wouldn’t be burned to ash upon entry. He looked around in confusion upon hearing the echoing of voices, and his eyes caught a glimpse of fire and the shape of tents.

“What the Hell?” he whispered. He quickly scampered closer until he could get a clear view of what seemed to be one of many campsites where soldiers were taking refuge for the night. They’re weapons glittered in the firelight and their voices were hushed. It was then that the tech took effect. Suddenly Scott was normal sized, and out in the open in front of at least ten heavily armed soldiers.

“The Ant-man!” One of them exclaimed, grabbing their gun. Scott jumped back and realised why his suit had failed. He was in a weird bubble of some kind that seemed to cancel the effects of any tech. The good news, only the front half of him was in. His back, and the Vision maker, were still tiny and safe. Scott jumped back out of the bubble and hit his shrink button, but found to his horror it didn’t work. The bubble had fried the whole suit.

The soldiers were surrounding him and Scott saw only one option. He ripped the still tiny Vision maker off of his back and chucked it into the forest beyond. He saw the tiny speck sail through the trees before a shot rang out, and Scott Lang knew no more.

 

**2400**

Dr. Strange stared at the clock with baited breath, eyes watching as the second hand hit the twelve at the top, where the minute and hour hands were resting as well.

“I guess this is it, then,” Quill said from where he sat with the other guardians.

“I guess it is,” Strange replied.

“How will they get through the shields?” Gamora asked.

“I’m guessing they have a plan for that. They wouldn’t be pulling this operation if they didn’t,” Strange replied.

The last few hours had been torturous for everyone in the building. Steve and Bucky hadn’t been seen since the meeting, obviously unable to cope with the idea of fighting american soldiers. Rhodes and Sam were struggling as well, but they were still trying to help if they could. Natasha had been working with Okoye and Loki had been using whatever powers he could to try and keep an eye on the soldiers outside the shields. It was because of him that they had seen Scott’s body lying on the ground with a bullet hole in his chest.

The Guardians were antsy, but as they had no real ties to America, they didn’t feel the same sentimental loss or betrayal as the others. Bruce and Wanda had been in Shuri’s lab, Wanda working with Shuri to try and find the machine which Scott had so valiantly saved, and Bruce running DNA tests to try and distract himself. Using a sample of T’Challa and Bucky’s blood, he had determined that the golden light had had an effect on DNA, but the spider seemed to have had a hand in it for Peter as well.

Tony had been trying to distract Peter ever since the news of the oncoming battle had come to light, but it didn't’ seem to be working for either one of them. Finally he had decided to get Pepper and May on a hologram and tell them what was going on so that Peter could speak with his aunt. They talked for a while while Tony filled Pepper in as to what was going on.

“Tony, this has got to end,” Pepper said after he’d finished. “And it’s got to end with him,” she said, pointing at where Peter was crying into his holographic aunt’s arms.

“I don’t follow.”

“If the Avenger’s fight their own country then Ross will have his proof that you’re evil. If you don’t than Wakanda gets unnecessarily damaged, and America even more so. If we want to settle this peacefully we’re gonna need something to bring everyone together, and nothing does that like a child torn away from his family,” Pepper explained.

“What do you want him to do?”

“I want him on camera, talking. I want him to talk about what it’s like, talk from the Avenger’s point of view, and demand Ross steps down,” she said fiercely.

“And how exactly am I supposed to explain his presence here?” Tony asked. “The world is not knowing he’s Spiderman. I’m not putting him through that.”

“The world won’t. Everyone already thinks he’s your super genius intern, right? Just say he came with you on business as a ‘learning experience’ or something, and then got stuck ‘cause of the travel ban,” Pepper said. She was about to say more when a loud bang rang out through the night, shaking the building to it’s core. “Tony, what was that!” she asked as the hologram flickered.

“I do believe it’s the home of the free and the brave coming for a visit. Gotta go,” Tony replied, closing down the hologram and rushing into the lab Peter was in. He looked terrified. The hologram of Aunt May seemed to have been disconnected during the blast, and Peter seemed to be having another panic attack. “Peter, I need you to breath,” Tony instructed, “Just breath. That’s all you gotta do. There you go, nice and easy,” he continued. Eventually Peter’s breathing was back under control and he looked around.

“It hurts,” he whimpered, clutching his head. It was then that Tony remembered his enhanced senses. Shit. The blast must have been ten times louder to Peter, and it was already borderline painful for normal, human, hearing.

Tony quickly rushed them to Shuri’s lab, Peter flinching with ever noise from the battle going on below. They were passing a window when Tony almost froze. He could see the shapes of American and Wakandan soldiers fighting below, but a blast of electricity alerted him to someone he hadn’t been expecting to be fighting. Natasha. Another whimper from Peter brought him back to the situation at hand though, and he quickly ran the rest of the way to Shuri’s lab. He threw the door open to reveal a very startled Shuri, Bruce, and Wanda.

“Stark! What is going on!” Shuri yelled and Tony have carried Peter into the lab and lay him down on a table.

“Is Peter okay?” Wanda asked, helping Tony set the boy up in a more comfortable position.

“His hearing, it’s enhanced because of the spider bite,” Tony said. “His ears, they’re gonna be damaged beyond repair if we don’t do something!” he whispered urgently, not wanting to make too much unnecessary noise. Bruce’s eyes widened at the news and he quickly began checking Peter over.

“His ears are definitely not going to hold up under this much stress for long,” he warned.

“Shuri, do you have anything? Anything at all?” Tony asked desperately.

“Um… I have really powerful headphones,” she offered, holding up a pair that seemed to be made of solid vibranium.

“Works for now,” Tony said, getting a nod of affirmation from Bruce. They had to put the headphones on Peter for him as he had already passed out, but his body got a little less tense after a little while of wearing the headphones.

“We’ll have to monitor him for however long it takes us to get a better solution, but this should hold for now. Vibranium is powerful stuff,” Bruce said. Tony nodded and all but collapsed into a chair.

“Natasha’s on the field,” Tony finally said, making everyone look up.

“Who else?”

“I’m not sure, I was passing really fast. I just saw the electricity.

“You sure it’s not Thor?” Wanda offered.

“Yeah, his lightling his more, well, lightning. Nat’s has a bit more of a blue tint to it,” Tony explained.“If she’s out there, I’m guessing more are as well.

“You should go check in with the meeting room, see what’s up,” Shuri said. “You should too, Wanda. Me and Bruce and watch Peter for now.” Wanda and Tony nodded and, with one last glance at the unconscious form of Peter, left the lab and ran towards the meeting room.

 

The battle field was horrifying. Natasha had gone out with the mission of not killing anyone. No soldier would die because of her, or any Avenger. The problem with that was that they were still trying to kill her, which made it very difficult not to snap their necks. She resisted though, and only electrocuted them and then bound their hands and feet with vibranium wires that Shuri had made her.

“Hey, Nat! They’re on your tail!” The voice of Sam said, as he dropped non lethal mini grenades down. They had been designed solely for this purpose, and the worst they could do was knock someone unconscious.

Natasha whirled around and through an electric dart at the gunmen aiming their gun at her, successfully knocking them to the ground. She quickly throughout wires which wrapped themselves around the mans feet and wrists before darting off into the crazed mass, catching sight of Gamora and Nebula fighting back to back nearby.

All the Guardians of the Galaxy had agreed to fight and, much to Rocket’s disappointment, not kill, along with Clint, Sam, and, much to everyone’s surprisingly, Rhodey. War Machine had loaded his suit with knockout gas, and other such non lethal creations of Tony’s. The Americans, though, did not seem to share the Avenger’s no killing ideas. They were firing rounds of bullets, and making deadly attacks. The thing that struck Natasha as odd though wasn’t the lack of diplomacy as much as the soldiers themselves. They had no military garb that she had seen before, but wore all black bulletproof vests with a symbol right over their chests that looked like a hexagon with a skeletal lioness head inside it.

"Hey, anyone figured out what this symbol is?" Natasha asked over the com system.

"No clue," Clint replied. "They're not regular military, that's for sure."

"You're right, their fighting system is standard for American military, it's more like something I was taught in my... training," Natasha said, not wanting to bring up bad memories.

"I'm sending in a picture now, seeing if anyone inside can find anything," Rhodey said, flying over their heads. Natasha sent her thanks and rejoined the fight. Something was off about the soldiers, and she didn't like it.

 

The meeting room was busy. All high ranking people in Wakanda's military force were in there, along with the various groups of heroes. Wanda longed to be out helping on the field, but they didn't need to give Ross anymore reason to hate her.

The picture of the symbol was causing quite a stir. It had been confirmed that the symbol wasn't for any known military group under Ross's control, and they had yet to find any sort of possibility for what it meant. That is until Bucky came in and saw a print out of it in Steve's hand. Then everything went to Hell.

"Bucky?" Steve asked as Bucky's eyes zeroed in on the symbol and every limb stopped moving. He slowly looked up at Steve and let his hands rest at his sides.

"Ready to comply."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LegacyofLight.tumblr.com


	7. Not Enough Rope to Tie Me Down, Not Enough Tape to Shut This Mouth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The strange symbol is explained, and Peter and Palmarius make decisions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! I'm back! I had to type my fingers off to get this done today, so pardon any mistakes. I just couldn't leave you all hanging with the cliff hanger of last chapter. Enjoy!

“Bucky?” Steve asked. Bucky just continued to stare vacantly forward, every muscle tensed as though he were preparing to attack. Steve carefully approached him as Okoye carefully rested her hand on her spear. Everyone watched as Steve approached until he was standing right in front of Bucky. “Bucky?” He asked again. Bucky looked up at him, eyes blank, before answering.

“Code not accepted,” he said shortly. It was at that moment that Steve seemed to shatter. His expression crumbled and tears wet his eyes. He reached up a shaking hand and ran it softly along the other mans cheek, but got no response. A broken sob ripped its way out of his throat and he lowered his hand. Bucky's face remained dispassionate and any signs of love or recognition that had sparked in his eyes had been chased out by shadows.

“Guys, get anything sharp away,” Tony said. Wanda nodded and summoned all the various weapons that were not being held by a clear minded person to her. It was not the best idea. 

Bucky jumped at the motion, and lunged at the person closest, who just so happened to be Steve. Tears streamed down Steve's face as he tried to keep Bucky from choking him to death without hurting him, flinching everytime he was forced to land a hit on the other man.

Everyone jumped into action to try and get Bucky off of him, but found themselves blasted back by a flash of purple. Once the light had cleared they looked up to see Bucky being held down by a yellowish light coming from Palmarius’s hands. He struggled for a moment before going limp on the ground.

“What did you do to him!” Steve yelled, running over to the unconscious man and cradling Bucky's head in his lap.

“Relax, I fixed him,” she said. “He is exhausted though, you’ll need to take him back to his room,” Palmarius instructed. Soon both Steve and Bucky were out of the room, leaving everyone in a shocked silence.

“Well that was… enlightening,” Tony said.

“Yes, I believe that we can determine that this has something to do with Hydra,” Wanda agreed.

“The symbol is different though. Hydra is an Octopus, and this is a lioness,” Tony observed.

“It’s the same general design though, so maybe it’s some sort of offshoot, like a plan b in case the main thing goes under.”

“Well that would make sense, the main thing did go under after Cap destroyed the helicarriers, and then Wanda turned on them during the whole ‘Ultron’ thing,” Thor said.

“So what does Ross have to do with them? I mean, I hate the guy, but his main concern is America. He doesn’t seem like the kinda guy who’d work with Hydra,” Bruce said, walking into the room. “Peter’s awake,” he added, looking at Tony. “So, Hydra, huh?”

“Evidently. Nothing else could possibly trigger Bucky like that,” Okoye replied.

“Yeah, uh, I thought you guys had fixed that,” Tony pointed out. T’Challa sighed and closed his eyes for a moment.

“The work we did on Sergeant Barnes had never been tested, and we had no knowledge of exactly what Hydra did to him. We did all we could, but there was always a chance that something like this would happen again.”

“Well can you fix it now?”

“I do not know. We will do our best, but once again, this is new territory. Even for us,” T’Challa explained. 

“Well, someone’s gotta alert the guys on the field,” Tony finally said. “And I have got to go see Peter. Pepper had an idea that I need to run by him,” Tony said, striding quickly from the room.

 

 

The asset was tired. It felt as if it had been drained of all energy, like a phone at 7% on low power mode. The asset felt upset. Wrong, the asset felt nothing. The asset wasn’t supposed to feel anything. Something was wrong, the asset needed to be wiped. No, it didn’t want to. The asset wasn’t supposed to want. It needed-

“Bucky?” a voice asked. That voice, it was familiar. The asset knew that voice. The asset loved that voice- the asset loved nothing. Love was weak and foolish. But the asset knew that voice. Bucky knew that voice. “Bucky, it’s me,” the voice repeated. Bucky, he thought. That sounded right.

“S-steve?” he asked. That name sounded right. It matched with the voice in his mind. He heard what sounded like a sigh of relief and felt the warm weight of an arm being wrapped around his shoulder. He automatically moved closer to the warmth, and shifted his head until he heart the calming melody of a heartbeat.

“Yeah, you back with me?” the voice asked. Bucky opened his eyes slowly and found himself curled up against Steve in his room, blankets wrapped around them both.

“What happened?” Bucky asked tentatively. His chest hurt, and his arm felt like it had been twisted in the socket. 

“Hydra,” Steve growled. “Stark is looking into it. Natasha sent us a picture of a symbol the soldiers have on their uniforms. You came into the room, took one glance at it, and suddenly you were gone. You were the Winter Soldier,” he explained, voice breaking at the end.

Bucky nodded slowly. He remembered the symbol alright, he remembered it very well. Project Nemea, named for deadly beast of greek mythology, had been a very minor part of Hydra. They had been the ones who had overseen the more… difficult, parts of his training. Now that the main branch of Hydra was gone, it made sense that Nemea would be next in line.

“Nemea,” Bucky whispered, closing his eyes again and curling himself into a ball. “Tell them it’s called Project Nemea,” he instructed before slipping back to the realm of sleep.

 

 

“What is Hydra doing here?” Peter asked the second Tony walked into the room. He still had the headphones on, but his enhanced hearing allowed him to still hear Tony through them.

“How the Hell do you know about that?” Tony asked in surprise.

“I hacked the surveillance tape and spied on you guys,” Shuri said, looked up from behind one of her many view screens. “How’s Bucky?”

“Steve reported he woke up, and we’re now looking into what he calls ‘Project Nemea’,” Tony reported. “Now, how’s Peter?”

“He’s currently stable. His ears received very little damage from what I can tell, which is a lot, but I’d keep the headphones on to be safe.”

“Great,” Tony said, nodding. “I’m gonna need to ask you a favor,” he said, turning to Peter. “You don’t have to do it, but Pepper thinks it will help us turn the tides,” he said.

“What does she need me to do?” Peter asked, seeming to ignore the ‘you don’t have to do it’ part of Tony’s sentence.

“She wants you on camera, talking about what it’s like for you here,” Tony explained. Peter looked puzzled.

“Why would she want that?” he asked.

‘Because, you’re young, you’re relatable, and you have those puppy eyes. We just need raw emotion and heartbreaking tales, and then the public will love you,” Tony said.

“But then they’ll know I’m Spiderman,” Peter pointed out.

“Now they won’t. Pepper already came up with a story. You’re my top teenage intern whom I brought to Wakanda for a ‘learning experience’ pre-travel ban. All you want to do is get back to your friends and family, and try to mention how awesome the Avengers are while you’re at it. Oh! And throw in the part about Hydra, that’ll definitely get ‘em on our side,” Tony instructed.

“Alright, when do we start?” Peter asked.

“Not yet,” Shuri said. My brother wants to give them a little longer to surrender. He says if they still refuse by 0800 then we will start using extreme measures. THat means you’ll want your message being broadcasted at around 0730,” Shuri explained. “Until then, you can prepare what you’re going to say. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do. We happen to be in a war, in case you hadn’t noticed!”

 

 

The battlefield was a mess. After the revelation that the soldiers were not hard working Americans who were serving their countries but Hydra warriors, their ‘no kill’ spree ended pretty quick. Sam blew them away as he and Rhodey soared above the battlefield. Flashes of electricity showed him where Natasha was, and the occasional explosion gave him eyes on Quill.

His head jerked up when he heard a loud bang, and his eyes widened as he took in the cause. “Guys! We’ve got incoming!” he yelled. He watched as more of Hydra’s troops came pouring out of bushes and hidden forces.

“Oh you have GOT to be kidding me!” Rhodey yelled, quickly flying low and dive bombing the incoming forces.

“Guys, you might wanna call inside, things ain’t looking to good,” Quill yelled into the coms. “We need more ground support!”

“Quill is right,” Nebula agreed. “They’re closing in!”

“You asked for ground support?” Came the voice of Palmarius. Suddenly there was a purple flash, and at least twenty of Hydra’s agents were thrown back to reveal the form of Palmarius.

“YES!” Drax yelled, leaping through the field of bodies.

“You sure you wanna do this Palmarius? If they do this, then Hydra, Ross, and the rest of the world will know your here. The accords will become your problem too, and you’ll face the problems of an Avenger,” Natasha warned.

“I was put here to help the Avengers stop Thanos and save the universe. I’ve done that, my purpose is fulfilled. Until the stones require my assistance again, I will stay here and fight,” she said before diving into the crowd.

“Well I’m definitely not complaining about that,” Sam said, shooting down a few more Hydra soldiers.

 

Peter sat on a cushioned stool in Shuri's lab. He looked out the large windows to see the son rising over the large field below where soldiers still fought viciously. He was set to broadcast live to the entirety of America in five minutes. He was terrified. Tony and Shuri were just in the other room so if anything went wrong, they'd know. Pepper was going to be uploading his message straight to the website she'd created to protest the war, where practically everyone would be watching. 

"You ready, kid?" Tony asked.

"Yeah, yeah, fine, Mr. Stark," he replied convincingly. Tony gave him a quick thumbs up before leaving the room. A sign from Shuri in the other room alerted Peter that the camera was now rolling. He looked straight into the lens and took a deep breath.

"My name is Peter Parker, and I am here to tell the truth." Tony looked at Shuri in confusion. This wasn't the script they'd prepared. 

"What is he-" Tony started.

"Shut up! He's talking," Shuri hissed, leaning forward.

"I am currently in Wakanda with the Avengers, where we are being attacked by troops. You're probably wondering what I'm doing here. Well, I came here with Mr. Stark to fight Thanos, because I'm Spiderman," he said, pausing to let his words sink in. Both Tony and Shuri were shocked. It reminded them a bit of how Tony had told the world he was Iron man.

"Ever since Secretary Ross declared war on Wakanda, we have been trapped here, unable to see friends or family members. Unable to help rebuild New York. I died when Thanos turned half the population to ash. I died, came back, and have not been able to see the only family I have left. Is it worth it? Is settling a petty vendetta worth all this?"

"While we have been trying to settle this with diplomacy, Secretary Ross snuck hundreds of soldiers over the border, who attacked us at 2400, and killed the Ant-man in cold blood. These are not normal soldiers, though. They're highly skilled Hydra agents, and we have no way of knowing how many there are. People are dying. Innocent people are dying! Please, stop him!" Peter yelled, tears welling in his eyes as he thought of the bodies that now littered the land below. 

"I received word before coming on, everyone we have will soon be released on the battlefield, and there will be no mercy. Please stop before anyone else dies!" He begged, before the connection was ended. 

Peter stared at the ground for a few minutes before Tony and Shuri came rushing in. 

"That was brilliant!" Shuri exclaimed.

"Kid, you realise what you just did, right?" Tony asked. "The world knows you're Spiderman. Hydra knows you're Spiderman." Peter nodded before looking up. 

"I can't ask them to trust me if I don't trust them," he stated simply before heading back to his room in a daze. Tony watched him go and nodded to himself. He'd made the right choice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LegacyofLight.tumblr.com


	8. Falling Further In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle continues, and Peter once again almost gives Tony a heart attack. Also, Captain Marvel's back!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! This is earlier than I usually post, but I just wanted to get it out quickly. I have about one more chapter left, but I'll probably use Nemea as a villain later on in one-shots, so remember the name!

Pepper watched with a smug smirk as the internet exploded over Peter’s message. The TV across from her showed mass protests in DC, while the White House released a statement saying they were dealing with the situation. Ross’s building was surrounded, but the man had refused to come out.   
“Hey, Tony,” she said as a holographic image of the man popped up in front of her.   
“So, did our plan work?”   
“You mean did MY plan work,” she corrected. “Yes, I believe it has. The only problem is that I highly doubt that Hydra is going to stop just because the president of the US says it has to.”   
“Yeah, I figured that,” Tony replied with a sigh. “Will America be sending us any help?” he asked hopefully.   
“Yes, that’s what we’re pushing for. I have a feeling they will, considering this whole thing is their fault. I’ll tell you more once they contact me,” she said before closing the hologram. 

 

Peter had no clue what to do. It had been thirty minutes since the rest of the Avengers had been sent into the battlefield. Well, everyone except him and Bucky. Even Loki had been allowed out! Steve had decided that Bucky was not going anywhere near anything Hydra related, and had listed off a number of reasons why he would have to stay.  
Tony had told Peter that he had to stay, but gave absolutely no valid argument. It was for that reason that Peter was currently in the iron spider suit, and sneaking towards the buildings exit.   
“Where ya going, kid?” the voice of Bucky asked, making Peter freeze.   
“Um...the training arena?” he offered.   
“In full gear, with no sparring partner,” Bucky said, raising an eyebrow.   
“I was going to use the bots,” Peter said.   
“The bots were shut down this morning to give more energy to the shields,” Bucky said. “You were there for that, Tony showed you how to do it,” he recalled, making Peter lower his head as he realised his lie was unraveling. “Now, where are you going?” Peter sighed and met the other man’s eyes.   
“I can’t just let them fight for me!” Peter yelled. Bucky sighed and lead Peter away from the door.   
“Tony told you to stay here, and so you are going to,” Bucky ordered.   
“Fine,” Peter grumbled. “I’m sorry.” With that he kicked back, channeling all his strength and threw Bucky off of him before running towards the exit. Bucky scrambled back to his feet just in time to see the large doors slam behind Peter.   
“Dammit!” he yelled. With a long suffering sigh he raced to the armory, and grabbed his gun. “If I go out there, Steves gonna kill me. If that kid dies, Tony’s gonna kill me,” he grumbled, heading back towards the door. “I am so dead.” 

 

Tony had gone out about thirty minutes after Peter’s message had been sent out, along with all the rest of the Avengers, T’Challa, Okoye, M’Baku, and Dr. Strange. Peter had practically begged to join them on the field, but Tony had refused to the point of dragging him back to the main room and threatening to take his suit. The battlefield looked even worse in the light of day, and he didn’t plan on exposing the kid to it. Besides, he’d have company. Bucky was staying behind on Steve’s orders as well. That was why when a web suddenly dragged a jet-packed Hydra agent that was chasing Tony out of the sky, he was surprised to say the least. That surprise turned to a mix of terror and fury as he spotted a certain spider-boy on the other side of said web.   
“PETER!” he yelled furiously.   
“H-hey Mr. Stark!” he greeted nervously.   
“Peter, go back inside now,” he ordered.   
“I really can’t, Mr. Stark. I mean, there’s nothing useful to do, and you guys are all out here-”  
“Inside. Now.” Suddenly an array of shots sounded out, and Tony watched as at least ten Hydra soldiers were blasted back. Bucky.   
“Kid! Not cool!” said soldier yelled, glaring at Peter.   
“I’m sorry, but I’m doing this,” Peter replied, disappearing into the crowd.   
“Shit,” Tony cursed. “Barnes, stay with him!” he ordered.   
“On it Tony,” Bucky responded. “I’ll alert the others that we’re out here.” Tony tried to find Peter again to force him inside, but was soon distracted by another jet packed hydra agent. 

 

Carol Danvers was perched on the roof of Ross’s building, an extra jetpack next to her. She’d already gotten all the security cameras on the building onto a loop so that she wouldn’t be seen.   
“Are you sure about this Carol?” a voice asked in her earpiece.   
“Yes, just act natural. I’m waiting on the roof.”  
“Are you sure I can’t just stay here? I could get more information from Ross,” the voice offered.   
“No, you’re not safe here. Just say you need water,” Carol ordered. She waited a few minutes before the com came back to life.   
“Alright, I’m out of the main room, now what?”   
“Walk up the main stairs, it will look less suspicious if you do. Keep your eyes forward, and greet people you know. If anyone asks, your grabbing something from Ross’s office, and it’s classified. Even you don’t know what’s in it.”   
“Okay, I’m going up the stairs.” Carol had to wait a much longer time than she planned, but finally Reyna appeared in the doorway.   
“Did you get out okay?” she asked, fastening the jetpack onto Reyna’s soldiers.   
“Yeah, I just had to answer some questions for Jason. It would have looked to weird if I refused,” she replied. “Now let’s go, Ross is probably already looking for me,” she said. It took them barely any time to reach the S.H.I.E.L.D helicarrier waiting above the cloud bank, and they were soon in the main room giving Maria a report.   
“Reyna, what can you tell us about Ross’s involvement with Hydra?” she asked.   
“I had no idea he was working with them, I thought the soldiers he sent in were just some sort of secret government team or something. You know, a real life Treadstone, or Black Briar,” Reyna admit. “He kept Hydra a secret from all of us.” Maria nodded, looking slightly disappointed.   
“I had a feeling, just wanted to be sure.”  
“Agent Hill, will the US be sending Wakanda any support?” Reyna asked.   
“WE think so, COngress just has to vote,” Maria said. “And if for some reason that doesn’t pass, than S.H.I.E.L.D will be getting involved for them.” 

 

Bodies littered the battlefield of Wakanda warriors, and Hydra soldiers alike. Steve and T’Challa were in the middle of one of the large sections of Hydra. They tried to hold them back, but they were being quickly overwhelmed. Suddenly though, a flash of purple blasted a bunch back. Steve looked up to see Palmarius a few yards away being swarmed with Hydra agents. WHile the blast had helped, they were quickly recovering and returning to the attack.   
“Hey Cap! Catch!” Tony’s voice said from over the com system. Steve looked up to see a large circular disk being dropped by Ironman. It landed with a thump beside him, stunning the Hydra agents long enough for Steve to get a good look at what Stark had just thrown at his head. It shown red, white, and blue and had a large star in the middle, along with six dents in the surface. His shield. Tony had kept his shield. Steve swiftly grabbed the shield and threw it as hard as he could at the oncoming assault, watching in satisfaction as soldiers were thrown back.   
“Nice throw, Captain!” T’Challa called.   
“Thank you, Tony!” Steve called into the coms.   
“Yeah, well, what else was I going to do with it?” was the response he got. A blast of lighting coming from a cluster of dark clouds which hadn’t been there previously lighted up the field, while an accompanying blast of green gave them eyes on Thor and Loki.   
“I’ve got to admit, it’s nice fighting with him instead of against hi,” Natasha said.   
“You’ve got that right,” Clint agreed. “Do you know how many arrows I wasted trying to shoot him?”  
“As much as I love hearing people compliment me, don’t you have soldiers to kill?” Loki’s voice cut in.   
“Forgot he had a com,” Tony said. He was about to say more, but was interrupted by a load roar and the sound of smashing. “Is that-”   
“Hulk!” Steve finished in shock. “I thought he was off pouting in the far recesses of Bruce’s mind!” he exclaimed in shock.   
“Apparently they figured out a way to get him back,” Natasha said.   
“Does it really matter? He’s back, he’s fighting for us, and Hydra currently looks like Loki after his attempted invasion of New York,” Clint cut in.   
“Hey!” Came an indignant yell from the com system.   
“Yup, forgot he was on here again,” Clint said.   
“Guys! Open the shields! We’ve got help incoming!” Sam yelled. Sure enough American jets were flying towards the shields, which were quickly being lowered.   
“How do we know they’re not Hydra?” Peter’s voice asked.   
“Cause, Ross wouldn’t have access to those ships, not now,” Rhodey replied. Sure enough, when the ships landed american soldiers jumped out.   
“Oh thank the gods,” Palmarius said over the com.   
“Again with the Percy Jackson references?” Peter asked.   
“What? I’m still Mindy,” she said, briefly shifting into her other form before turning herself back into Palmarius.   
The American troops rushed onto the field, guns blazing. Snipers stayed in trees and in bushes, while fighter jets joined Sam, Tony, and Rhodey in the air. They all avoided Thor’s lighting and a few tried to shoot at Loki, not realising that he was now on there side, but they were a much needed help.   
Doctor Strange trapped a few soldiers in time using the time stone, and Bucky quickly shot them down before they could move again. The Nemea agents seemed to be beginning to realise that they were losing the upper hand. Some began to try and flee into the forest, only to be shot down by tree top snipers as others choked on poisonous pills when captured.   
“We’ve got to figure out a way to get the pills away from them,” Rhodey said, watching as another possible hostage foamed at the mouth and died.   
“But how? The pills are implanted in their teeth,” Bucky reminded them.   
“I’ve got an idea!” Peter called over the com systems.   
“Kid, I don’t know what it is, but if it involves you getting within two feet of one of those guys, the answers no!” Tony called.   
“You are aware he’s already doing whatever it is you told him not to do, right?” Rhodey asked.   
“Yeah, I know.” 

 

Peter looked around until he found a Nemean agent running towards the trees. He quickly swung over and webbed his feet to the ground and arms to his side. Then, before the soldier could react, webbed his tongue. The man’s eyes widened and he struggled to reach the implanted pill, but found he couldn’t.   
“Hey, uh, guys? I think I got one!” he called.   
“On my way,” Tony said. “By the way, you’re having your suit privileges revoked for a week,” he said as he landed and knocked the Nemea agent out.   
“But-but Mr. Stark-”  
“Nope, don’t wanna hear it. Complain, and I’ll make it two weeks.” With that, he flew the new hostage back to the main building where Shuri got to work removing the implant. Soon they had three more hostages, all webbed up and in Shuri’s lab.   
“Are they going to surrender anytime soon?” Sam asked.   
“I doubt it,” Wanda replied, throwing a group of them back and flying through the air towards another. “They’re a branch of Hydra, they don’t surrender.”   
“She’s right, they won’t stop until they’re dead, or captured,” Bucky agreed.   
“Well I don’t think that will be a problem, look up,” T’Challa said, pointing to where the shields were opening once more to reveal a large helicarrier.   
“S.H.I.E.L.D!” Clint yelled. “They’re here!”   
“Not just S.H.I.E.L.D,” Carol Danvers said, patching into their coms. “Ross is still locked in his little fort, but they’ll be getting him pretty soon. He’ll either kill himself, or surrender. He knows his little army’s losing.”   
“Good to see you again, Carol,” Clint said.   
“You too, agent.”   
“I’m technically retired,” he corrected.   
“Ha! You keep telling yourself that,” was the only response before she dived into the fray. 

 

With the arrival of S.H.I.E.L.D, the fight was basically won. The Nemea agents were soon all dead, or captured, only a few having escaped. Word of the victory spread worldwide, and there were celebrations in the streets of New York as Pepper released her statement about the events of the past few days.   
There had been many dead, and the injuries of the survivors were extensive. Steve’s arm was now in a cast which may or may not have been painted to match Bucky’s arm, and Bucky himself was still quite shaken from his experience seeing Nemea so close again. He had briefly lost control and slipped back into Winter Soldier mode again during the fight which resulted in him ripping the agent he was fighting’s arm off, but he snapped out of it and swiftly ended the man’s life with a bullet to the head to end his suffering.   
Quill had a bad concussion and Gamora, a third degree burn stretching up her arm from a suicide bomber. Drax was going to need stitches on his shin where a blade had sliced him quite deeply, along with Strange, and Peter. Sam and Rhodey hadn’t been hit to hard, but Sam had been grazed by one of the jet packed agents, and so he needed to be careful with his left arm.   
Carol had quickly left with S.H.I.E.L.D, not wanting to get involved with the American soldiers just in case the accords weren’t amended and they would report her to their higher ups. T’Challa quickly called everyone to the meeting room once all major injuries had been attended to. THey stood beside him as he opened up a live feed onto the website Pepper had set up.  
“Today we have lost many,” he began. “Things will soon be changing very rapidly from this day forward, and no one can really tell where it will all lead. According to Sergeant Barnes, this was probably not the last of Nemea, but we have dealt a blow that will not soon be recovered from. Before all of this began, we were beginning to create ties with America. I would like to continue to do so, and offer my sincere apologies for any damages that may have been caused during these past weeks.”  
“As for the Avengers,” he said, gesturing to where said group stood, “They have decided to return to New York where they hope to amend the accords created by ex-secretary Ross, and to expand their ranks. Palmarius, guardian of the Infinity Stones, as offered Wakanda two. As a show of good faith, and a hope for a brighter future, we shall be giving one to America. Tony Stark shall head a research team to study it, and hopefully create mass advancements for the benefit of all.”   
T’Challa continued for awhile, though Peter zoned out after about twenty minutes. The burn on his right shoulder was beginning to hurt again, but he knew that he had to stay still in front of the camera and look professional. He glanced over at Bruce, who had been de-Hulkified, who gave him a knowing look.   
Shuri had been the one to figure out how to get the Hulk back out to fight for them. Using the mind stone and a bit of Loki’s mind-controlling power, she had managed to get into contact with the Hulk. She had been managing a large scenario of reasons that the Hulk wouldn’t come out. What she hadn’t been expecting, was it to be fear. The Hulk had never in his life lost a battle. Thanos had managed to almost kill him in under a minute. Fear of losing and death had driven the Hulk to hiding out and using Bruce as a human shield.   
It had taken surprisingly little convincing to get him to come back out. Only the promise of very easy victims that he could smash. Once the smashing was done, he agreed to let Bruce come back with the promise that he’d be able to come out again soon. It was for that reason that Tony had bought twenty four acres of wilderness under the Avengers name that was located nowhere near any civilization.   
As T’Challa finished up and the camera shut down, the group slowly dispersed. Peter got some pain medication from Bruce and headed back to his room, staring mournfully at where is suit usually stayed. Tony had been quite serious when he promised a week of no suit privileges. The first thing he’d done was hide it where Peter wouldn’t be able to get his hands on it. Peter would still try, oh he’d try, but in the end he would still be waiting a week before getting his suit back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LegacyofLight.tumblr.com


	9. Listen Children to a Story That was Written Long Ago...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Foreshadowing. That's basically it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! So, as many of you guessed, this is not completely wrapped up given how open ended the last chapter was. (That and I said I would be using Nemea as a villain in the future). The next and final installment in this series will be less of a big multi-chaptered work, and more of a group of oneshots or small multi chapter fics.

The trip back to New York was spent in various ways by different people. Doctor Strange spent the time communicating with various Sanctums and being berated by Wong, much to the amusement of Loki, who was sitting beside a sleeping Thor and laughing silently.  
Bucky was staring absently at the clouds out the window while Steve was sketching in his notebook beside him. Clint was on the phone with his family, Natasha occasionally leaning over to say hi to someone and laughing at things being said that no one else could hear from where they were. Sam was looking in dismay at the broken parts of his wings, upset about the damage no matter how many times Rhodey assured him that Tony would be able to fix them within the day. Wanda had stayed in Wakanda with Shuri where they worked to re create vision now that they had the machine, which the patrol sent to bring in Scott’s body had found in the forest.  
Tony had been planning on taking a nap and then maybe looking through all the paperwork that had built up in his absence, but instead found himself being pestered by Peter for the kid’s suit back.  
“Please Mr. Stark?”  
“No, kid. That’s final!”  
“But just imagine if I hadn’t gone out. We wouldn’t have nearly this many hostages!”  
“I don’t care!” Tony shot back. “You will not be setting eyes on that suit for the next week, and that’s that,” he said, putting his headphones on and effectively drowning out Peter’s protests. 

They were met by paparazzi when they got off the plane, everyone trying to get a shot of Peter’s face, which Tony had effectively kept covered by tightening the drawstrings on his sweatshirt until it closed over it. They quickly went from the airport to the tinted, bullet proof cars that were waiting for them outside.  
They sped down the streets of New York and pulled into the compound, happy to find that Pepper and made sure that no paparazzi could get onto the property. Family was waiting inside, along with any friends who Pepper trusted enough to allow in. The reunions were bittersweet as Scott’s family was still in shock after the Ant-man’s death. Pepper said that they were welcome to stay as long as they needed, and T’Challa was having the suit sent back for Mr. Pym, though they all doubted that Pym would give it to anyone else.  
Pepper presented the group with new contracts to make the alliance with the Sanctums and the Guardians of the Galaxy official. The Guardians had already taken off, but a copy had been sent to Quill beforehand, and they and all signed.  
Thor and Loki agreed to stay for the celebrations, but would be leaving to go search for any surviving Asgardians. For some reason Thor thought that they’d be in Norway, which only Doctor Strange seemed to understand.  
“Here’s to the new age of the Avengers!” Tony said, raising a glass.  
“And to us all getting to retire tomorrow because there will never be another problem that will require our help ever!” Clint said, making the others laugh.  
“You keep telling yourself that,” Natasha replied. 

 

3049 (a very long time in the future)

Mr. Grendel's lectures were usually quite boring, but this one had the class’ undivided attention. Most talks about the Avengers did. Of course there still was a team of Avengers, and there probably always would be, but that first group always seemed to fascinate people the most.  
“And so Ross was revealed to be working with the Hydra branch Nemea, and the America-Wakandan War ended, almost as quickly as it had begun,” Mr. Grendel concluded. A girl in the front raised her hand and Mr. Grendel gestured for her to speak.  
“Is that why the Avengers are known as the ‘Conquerors of Nemea’?” she asked.  
“Oh no,” he said with a chuckle. “The war with Nemea had only just begun for the Avengers. I hope you all were taking notes, we’ll be having a quiz on this next Thursday,” he instructed. “Then we’ll begin learning about the Battle of Queens.”  
As the students filed out Mr. Grendel leaned over and grabbed a kindle from his desk and opened up the next textbook titled ‘The Age of Heroes’. The book was not particularly long, the table of contents only dividing it into three parts.  
The Infinity War  
The American-Wakandan War  
The Hydra-American War  
In total it would take about a month to get through as he had taught the class about the first two wars with different text books. The Hydra-American War would take a little while though as it was made up of many smaller battles and various government conflicts, but Mr. Gendel always looked forward to teaching it. He swiped forward through the first two parts and to the first chapter of the Hydra-American War: The Battle of Queens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! So the you can probably tell that the next you see of this series will be the Battle of Queens. Anything past that is not placed in a timeline, so I'm happy to take suggestions if anyone has a specific idea for something they'd like Nemea to try and do! If so, send me a message at LegacyofLight.tumblr.com

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think!  
> LegacyofLight.tumblr.com


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